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How could anyone do something like this...WARNING: NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART!
Outhaul
Posts: 7,440 ✭✭✭✭✭
Fighting back the tears...
20
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Wow!
OH GEEZE..............Pardon me while I faint!
Pete
How many $100s?
Its bullion. What's the issue?
(Now)
Not everone sees a coin in the same way apparently.
Most likely it was already heavily polished, rim dinged, etc. when this was done.
Wow! It would be worth trying to save still, possibly. If the bezel can be detached without leaving damage, the rest of the coin doesn't look too terrible.
How ???
Someone with a lot o money
Or no respect for numismatics
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Bad transactions with : nobody to date
Think of the paper money it held when it was first in use.
Bob, control yourself and remember that these Gold coins were meant to enable commerce, most of them lived out their lives in bags and/or bank vaults. many still continue in Europe and elsewhere overseas.
I don't see the problem with it. It's a widget not a historical artifact.
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, even when irrefutably accurate.
Bring it by my friends house with me. " Wow that's cool how much is that worth" sometimes I can't take it.
Nice craftsmanship!
It's a high relief... not just a normal St Gaudens.
gaudy
The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.
Albert Einstein (14 March 1879--18 April 1955)
Oh my, they have done worse; or better?
Only worth 20 bucks for a long time before and after.
Almost the same thing came in my shop. Mine was a brooch though.
My daughter was working at the shop at the time and had to call me because she thought it was funny looking.
Same deal. Seamless bezel so no way to check the edge. As it was a piece of jewelry and not just a coin, we had to hold for 30 days unchanged for police reporting.
I offered 2 choices. $700 and done .... or.... wait 30 days and when I could remove the bezel, I'd pay 2500 (fair price back then)
The customer said she didn't want to wait 30 days.
Sooooooooooooo............ cha-CHING!
Sent it to ANACS (that's how long ago it was) and it came back XF net.
Still want the hard cash.
And they put the Eagle side up.
High relief St. Gaudens are widgets. Popular and expensive ones, but still widgets.
Kind of cool. Kind of sad as well. But I like it. Can't fault the owner for his use of the coin many years ago I think.
Agree.
My point with widget is that it is not a unique coin that could be argued to represent an irreplaceable piece of history. THAT would have been a shame. When there are thousands of examples floating around, including representative examples in museum collections, it's no great historical loss.
In fact, one could argue that the money clip itself is a more valuable historical artifact as it represents something of the time in a scarcer fashion than just another high relief Saint.
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, even when irrefutably accurate.
i don't like money clips, I have never lost money using a billfold
But not a unique piece or a rarity. Plenty of museum examples.
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, even when irrefutably accurate.
Here's another interesting piece of jewelry.
This has to be the poorest known 1848 CAL. quarter eagle.
This is ok and cool to far more people than to those who do not like it.
My Collection of Old Holders
Never a slave to one plastic brand will I ever be.
😭😭😭 Not a High Relief
It’s sacrilege
money money money mooooney..... money!
Minor Variety Trade dollar's with chop marks set:
More Than It's Chopped Up To Be
You can keep it and I'll take the clip
I see the PAIN in Liberty face 
Widget or not, I cringe at the destruction of any (non-modern) coin.
Agree with "gaudy"...
Smitten with DBLCs.
I think I’m gonna throw up 🤢
I don't keep my paper money in either. I keep it loose in my back pocket.
I got pickpocketed once in Prague - they got my driver's license and a couple credit cards, as well as 100 marks I kept for emergencies (roughly $50). But, my main stash of cash was safe in my other pocket.
I just added a counterstamp to several old coins, the newest of which was over 100 years old, and the oldest of which was over 200 years old. Most of them were very low grade, if that makes you feel any better.
I love working with common or heavily worn old coins - it gives them a new life. You might call me a coin humanitarian, or a "coinarian".
Tacky AF.
I like the love tokens in this thread, tho. The other gold coins with just a hole drilled through them? Not so much.
My widget makes noise, when it's not jingling on a key chain.
``https://ebay.us/m/KxolR5
Is that a high relief OMG 😮
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/quarters/washington-quarters-major-sets/washington-quarters-date-set-circulation-strikes-1932-present/publishedset/209923
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/quarters/washington-quarters-major-sets/washington-quarters-date-set-circulation-strikes-1932-present/album/209923
what ever makes you happy in this case, just saying
I guess the "very low grade" part makes it a bit better but I've still got the uncontrollable cringe thing going!
(I can't bear to look at the guitar pick above. Staying... away... from... this... thread...)
Smitten with DBLCs.
I respectfully disagree with the idea that such a beautiful coin with a mintage of 12,367 compared to 4.3M for a common date is a "widget". I'd love to have one but don't want to prioritize $23-25K for a single coin.
I kind of like it and I’m sure many of these have encountered a far worse fate. Besides, it makes the high grade survivors all the more valuable.
My YouTube Channel
Check out the mink mark - struck with unfinished proof dies:
"A car is a tool that takes you from one place to another. Everything beyond that is a payment for other people's perception of you."
The problem is that when many people see a collectable coin ruined by being made into jewelry, or in this case a money clip, they assume the alternative would be that the coin would have survived in pristine or at least collectable condition. However, that coin might well not exist at all if it were not for its "transformation".
Assuming it was not a recent conversion, that coin survived a decades-long ban on the private possession of gold. There were of course exemptions for coin collectors, but it is very possible that whoever did that to the coin was not a collector. My grandparents told the story of how the $20 gold piece they were given as a wedding present was dutifully turned in when FDR imposed the gold ban.
I dig it and would do the eagle up like that too. The clip design could be better by a ton, but I’d rock it - have an ASE clip still in the box from the mint that has toned, will have to go look at it. Never used it as the clip itself is rather thin for my liking but would be a good poker roll night thing.
I wonder if the Omega Symbol can still be seen in the claw.
Pete
That CAL example is more upsetting than the high relief.
The 1848 CAL. is much rarer. The estimated surviving population is something 200 as opposed to probably 8,000 for the High Relief.