Coin mishandling confession thread...All posts will be kept in confidence!
DocBenjamin
Posts: 904 ✭✭✭✭
Early on, about 23 years ago, I bought a couple well circulated raw 32-S quarters on Ebay.
Read that for every genuine one on the market, there are 3 altered mint marks.
With a good loupe and a better imagination, I convinced myself that the coins were altered.
Destroyed them so they would not hit the market.
Not so sure I was correct, though.
4
Comments
As a youth in the late 70's, I cleaned many of my Lincoln cents with copper/brass cleaner to make them bright and shiny. Lol!
My Carson City Morgan Registry Set
I remember back in 1961 a school mate got a 1931-S Cent back in change from the school cafeteria. He promptly used a pencil eraser to clean it. Even then I knew that was wrong.
Over 15 years ago I drilled a hole in what used to be a BU off center cent. It still lives on my keychain.
When I was new to collecting, I rubbed baking soda on an original gray 1917-S dime in XF. To be honest, it didn't really make the coin look much worse, since I didn't overdo it, but it certainly didn't make it look better in terms of originality.
Young Numismatist • My Toned Coins
Life is roadblocks. Don't let nothing stop you, 'cause we ain't stopping. - DJ Khaled
No coin deserves this kind of abuse.
peacockcoins
I inherited some coins from my grandfather shortly after he passed away in 1986. My crooked and scummy aunt raided his collection before all his assets were protected. She took the collection to a local dealer and he advised her on what was of value and she sold them to him, then hurried the remnants back to my barely cold grandfather’s house.
I should note there were some DCAM early Jeffs that yielded some great value many years later, but I digress. Anyways, when I was around 12, about 4 years after he passed, I researched three pieces of “territorial gold” that were in the collection, octagonals all. I believed them to be all fakes, and I buttressed that belief based on the coin dealer my beeeyatch aunt used not wanting them previously.
So, I did what a dumb 12 year old would do and took tin snips to them. Number one - pot metal inside.
Number two - pot metal inside.
Number three - yellow metal
Inside. Gulp!
Kept that one hidden from my folks until I moved out. In my early 20’s I did more research on it with the benefit of the internet. Fortunately, it was a rather common piece, well, as common as those get anyways. And it was most certainly NOT fake. 🤦♂️
One side note. Those coins, however generally of low value, along with the 1990 proof silver eagle my maternal grandfather gave me that year, were the numismatic seeds that slowly continued growing ever since.
Having fun while switching things up and focusing on a next level PCGS slabbed 1950+ type set, while still looking for great examples for the 7070.
When I was 9 or 10 years old (many years ago) I made a bunch of 14-D's from 44-D's. And yes, I sold them to the other kids in the neighborhood as 14-D's. I cleaned up! I should have been a counterfeiter! Don't shoot the messenger, it's a confession thread! 🤣
23 years ago you destroyed a couple of 32-S's without being 100% sure they were genuine?? Please tell me you were 9 or 10 years old, 23 years ago!.......Then I would understand.
Since this is a confession thread, I'll forgive you without knowing all the facts. Hey, don't worry about it... I won't tell anyone else! 🤣 👍
Disclaimer: I'm not a dealer, trader, grader, investor or professional numismatist. I'm just a hobbyist. (To protect me but mostly you! 🤣 )
i know of a dropped first spouse coin that went rolling. searching in the immediate area was unsuccessful. it had rolled away into a foot traffic area and survived unharmed
I know someone who painted some nickels red.
They were used to run through a coin accepting slot machine to possibly gauge the time and how many coins the machine would return or keep depending on how many colored nickels were returned.
When I was 8 or 9, eBay was fairly new.
My parents would buy me rolls of 'unsearched' wheat pennies for doing weekly/monthly chores.
The moment I had them sorted by date and mint mark, they went directly into the jewelry cleaner.
I actually destroyed a 1922 no D weak reverse I found that way...
I'm not proud.
Exactly! Sometimes I wondered what could be done, Coin relegated to the back of a dirty dusty draw like it never lived it never mattered. Glued to the top of a desk to have a joke or two seeing who tries to pluck it.
THAT'S WHY I CREATED the Save the Coin foundation. Find it in your heart to help save the coins All it takes is 63 cents a day or 19.95 sent to my address PO BOX 154 NY, NY 10019.
Won't you save a coin today? Of course you will
Not abuse exactly but before TPGs I would put most of my coins in 2X2s stapled shut. A week or so would pass and I would succumb to the temptation to inspect them closely again under a glass and open them back up. I put staple scratches into some of my best coins including my first half eagle.
11.5$ Southern Dollars, The little “Big Easy” set
Well, it's kind of a 'coin mishandling' since I really shouldn't have been handling it.
Let me explain.
I was about 12 years old and was at a coin shop with my older brother and his friend.
They both egged me on to steal a coin.
I was hesitant, but I gave in to the pressure.
I stole a 1909 vdb 1c in BU condition in a 2x2 flip. (price in 1971 was $9.....I remember it well!!)
Boy, did I have guilt for the rest of my life.
So much so, that it kept me honest in my adult years as a jewelry appraiser/diamond grading because let me tell you, the temptation and the ease of switching diamonds is always there.
This sounds weird, but I'm kind of glad I took that 1909 cent back then as I think it played a major part in keeping me
honest throughout my career.
Don't get me wrong, I'm no saint, but after that 'criminal' episode in my life, I quickly recognized right from wrong and I never listened to outside bad influences in my life.
"“Those who sacrifice liberty for security/safety deserve neither.“(Benjamin Franklin)
"I only golf on days that end in 'Y'" (DE59)
Back when I was collecting more actively I was mainly buying $2 1/2 Indians. I used metal cutting snips to bust coins out of holders if I ever wanted to regrade, etc. Never had an issue with ngc or pcgs coins. I bought a coin from a fly by night self grader that was actually really nice (but not a 66 or 67 that they self graded) and was attempting to bust it out. I didn’t realize the coin came loose in the holder while I was snipping the plastic. Cut the thing nearly in two.
I assume these coins were fractional territorial gold coins. Did any have a bear on the reverse? There were a lot of fantasy fractional gold coins produced in the 1960's that were made with gold plated brass so the one with yellow inside was probably brass.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
I have some copper coins I soaked in olive oil when I was very new to the hobby. I don't remember if it was my bad idea or from bad advice online. I'd really like to know how to best conserve those.
There doesn't seem to be a good way to open and PCGS slabs that doesn't involve shards of plastic flying off at great speed potentially damaging the coin. With NGC slabs if you cut across the label area you can slide the core out once you de-burr the plastic. With ANACS you just pop the thing open with a screwdriver. Anyone cracked a CACG yet?
In the 50’s, pulling coins from circulation, abused the heck out of silver. Eraser, silver cleaner, abrasives of all sorts. Oddly, didn’t mess much with copper as results were more obviously harmful. Thankfully, nothing of real value so no regrets. As an adult tried to clean a ferrotype button, destroyed it. That one I regret. Oh, and maybe a staple scratch or two along the way.
As a kid, in the nineteen fifties, there was some solution offered to rejuvenate 1943 steel pennies. Did so on many occasions. Only to learn that many years later, they turned to cr...
I used Brasso brass and copper polish on a couple of Indian head cents when I was little. My older brother yelled at me when he found out so I stopped. I still have the coins, they toned since then but still look awful. I also copper plated a couple of 1943 steel cents one year when my brother bought me a science kit for Christmas, I don’t know what happened to them, I don’t think I still have those. They came out ok, except where the paper clip I used to hold the coin where you could still see the silver color peeking through.
Mr_Spud
This coin wasn’t… as bad… when I got it
Nic-A-Date on both date and mint mark of some dateless Buffalo nickels. And on some Liberty nickels.
Pencil eraser on some of my dad's very worn Indian cents in his coin board.
Wrecked a few pennies with my dad's vise, drill and hacksaw....
PSA - never try to 'unbend' an 800 year old penny.
DPOTD-3
'Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery'
CU #3245 B.N.A. #428
Don
I coated a few cents with mercury from an old thermometer. I'm surprised I wasn't poisoned.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
Does putting coins on a railroad track to flatten them count?
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
I found a low-leaf Wisconsin quarter in a roll about two years ago. I secured it and haven’t found it since.
It’s not the only coin or mint set which I have lost.
When I was young my mother broke a thermometer. She let me rub the mercury on a couple of Silver Dollars. They looked shiny for a few minutes. I sold them a few years after that. I am still here!
My thumb prints are all over some proof Franklin halves...."playing" with them when I was a kid.....hopefully they turned into wild toners
I once did a 'quick dip' on a 31-S LWC - of course the color was terribly wrong afterwards. That was in the Spring, I decided to put the coin on top of a tree stump in the backyard for the summer. It was exposed to sun, rain, etc. I turned it over about once a week. It actually 'restored' pretty well with that treatment. Go figure
Successful BST Transactions: erwindoc, VTchaser, moursund, robkool, RelicKING, Herb_T, Meltdown, ElmerFusterpuck
my brother uses ranch dressing on cents
To be honest I can’t recall the reverses anymore. I do recall the obverses all had an Indian of some sort. I’ve learned over the years that it was a common street scam in NYC during the 60’s-80’s where a lot of these came from. My grandfather’s last years were in semi-retirement as part time security guard in a massive professional building in the city. I know he acquired a lot of his coins in there and I could totally envision him getting taken on some Manhattan street.
Having fun while switching things up and focusing on a next level PCGS slabbed 1950+ type set, while still looking for great examples for the 7070.
I Nic-a-dated a batch of slick Buffalo nickels and one of them turned out to be a 1916 DDO-1. Had I been paying attention I could have identified it beforehand.
A person walked into my local coin shop with a Silver Dollar.
He walked up to the owner and tossed the coin across the table to him, clinking it and sliding it across the surface of the glass case.
"Is this coin rare", he asked.
The dealer tossed the coin right back to him, also clinking and sliding it back to him.
"Not worth more than silver bullion" he said.
I don't know if the dealer should have reacted like he did, but judging from the lack of respect that the customer displayed, I always thought that his action was justified.
Pete
there rules for them just as much as it is for us. (yes, justice was served that being his store, jmo)