Another story teller called the shop.
TwoSides2aCoin
Posts: 44,623 ✭✭✭✭✭
Caller : How much for one of them Sacagawea Dollars ?
Me : A dollar.
Caller : No, this is a 2000 P Cheerios Sacagawea.
Me : Oh ? Well I'd be interested.
Caller: How much ?
Me: How about a thousand ?
Caller: How about two thousand ?
Me : Well, I'd have to see it.
Caller: I will bring it in tomorrow.
Me : Okay. Where did you get it ?
Caller: I handle a lot of change and I found it when it came through the drawer.
Me: Cool. See you tomorrow.
A week has passed by, Anyway, it was still a good story.
13
Comments
He probably mistook it for the Goodacre Sac.
Not everyday do you see one of them dollars
Most likely just a normal circulated 2000-P.
Unless caller said it was still n the packaging...which seems highly unlikely.
I truly lack the social graces necessary to work successfully in front-of-the-shop retail.
There must have been some cheerios residue on the coin and so putting 2&2 together........
@BillDugan1959 I think you would probably be better than you give yourself credit for.
What I have found is this, and it's pretty funny, I think.
People will say "I have to ask a question and I'm so embarrassed because it will probably be one of the stupidest questions you have ever heard..."
...and it never is a stupid question.
But when people just ask stuff out of the blue.....yeah, then you get some really wild ones.
Me too
I was impressed by the caller's knowledge of the coin. He knew there were 5500 minted. I just needed to see those tail feathers.
``https://ebay.us/m/KxolR5
Used to roll search for them. Not any more thought, too many other years in circulation.
I got a call earlier in the week from a wife whose husband found a 1943 "silver" penny. I said to take a picture and join one of the forums to ask questions after saying it wasn't worth much. I'm glad I don't have to pay google for clicks.
I get the silver penny call about twice a week, for ten years.
``https://ebay.us/m/KxolR5
Yep... there are many, many non-collectors out there....and when they see something unusual (to them) or hear about a 'coin treasure', they get excited....I had to provide many a let down (gently) during my career in business (not coin business)....Sad part is, some get really angry, thinking you are trying to con them out of a valuable coin. Cheers, RickO
Two days ago a guy called and asked how much I paid for silver Eagles. I said " about $17." He responded with: " A 2019-S enhanced reverse proof with a low serial numbered COA in Proof 70 PCGS First Strike ".
I said ( excitedly) "Oh ? What are you looking for ? ". His answer : " two and a half K ".
I said , " keep looking". He asked " "WHAT ?" I said "KEEP LOOKING".
The phone went dead.
``https://ebay.us/m/KxolR5
Non-coin people just don't get it, and don't understand the importance we put on small details.
At shows I offer free appraisals which is like my way of doing community service (for the stuff I never got caught doing).
It can be rewarding when you can spark a new collector (which sometimes does happen, and just recently did) but it is trying as well, as any shop owner will agree.
But as much as this hobby has given me, I try to give some back and this is what I have resolved to do until I am too old and useless to do it anymore.
Last show a rather elderly woman came in the show very late in the day.
By the way she was looking around nervously and clutching the small coin purse in her hand, it was obvious she thought the item(s) she would be showing me were of great importance. (She would not have made a good poker player.)
I had already sized her up as having a 5% chance of having something worthwhile, and it turns out that that number was optimistic.
In a hushed and dramatic tone she told me she would be showing me her prize but she first wanted my credentials and some background. (Most of you can see this unfolding and know how it will end.)
In as nice of a way as I could I told her that I was offering a free service, and that she was welcome to avail herself of it, but that I would not subject myself to a job interview. She didn't like that, but decided to pull her purse above the table, lay out a cloth she had and opened the purse. Layers of tissue were unwrapped to reveal her prize, which after a half-second of examination, was a 1948 cent altered to "1943."
I told her the bad news.
"But you didn't even look at it."
" I did. I have seen hundreds and hundreds of these. They are quite obvious to detect in most cases."
"But you don't know what I have here. This coin is rare and worth hundreds of thousands of dollars."
Etc. etc.
She was stunned and hurt and distrustful and I truly felt sorry for her because she had taken the time to drive to the show just to show me this coin, in which she likely had placed her financial hopes for the future. It was quite sad, but she would not believe me.
She asked me who else at the show she could show it to.
Across the aisle, my friend of more than 25 years said "Ma'am, he's the guy to show it to...what he says it is, it is."
Long story, I know, and most of you shop owners have had this experience many times (as have I at shows, etc.) but this one hurt.
I told her I was sorry to have to tell her the bad news, and I was.
Some people I don't mind telling them the bad news, but this one--despite the rough way it started -- this one hurt.
@mannie gray I'm all ears when it comes to your coin dealer anecdotes, but there is no appropriate button that I can hit to acknowledge that one!
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas to you as well @BillDugan1959 !
Thanks for wading through my verbosity.
I've often wondered how many people took a metal detector into the store to check the cheerios boxes.
The Lincoln cent had to be be quite different from the Sac dollar according to one of those machines.....
When I worked at the coin shop we got lots of calls about reproduction bank notes. To simplify answering them I put a list of the most common ones with their dates and serial numbers next to the cash register.
One day a guy calls and asks about something on the list. I know the note and ask him "Does it have the word FACSIMILE on the lower left edge of the back?" He says Yes and I say sorry, that means it is a reproduction with no value.
About an hour later the guy comes into the store with the note WITH THE WORD FACSIMILE TORN OFF OF IT! He thought that would fool us.
Nobody wants to cast my Million Dollar banknote............................................
Pete
I like giving the dollar coins out to car wash and drive through people.
They appreciate the novelty.
I hope a few of them save them or give them to their kids.
I watched one guy head straight for the vending machine.