What is the Dumbest Thing You Have Done With a Coin
HiBucky
Posts: 631 ✭✭✭
In forty years of collecting coins two things I regret. I took a seated dollar that was sitting on my desk and in error, I picked up a bunch of 2 x 2s to place in the trash and somehow my seated dollar was included. Loss $750.00. And another screw up I bought a 1916 D dime a nice fine and placed it in an envelope a big envelope and left it on the counter. Wife was cleaning and threw it in the trash she thought it was empty... $810.00 ..The landfills are getting rich on my stupidity. These are my stupid errors in 40 years and I regret every one.
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Sold it. :'(
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
Calling Fred Weinberg.
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
Bought it.
Passed on it 😢
Ouch! ;-)
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Well, a millennium from now some alien may find them and start to question what they might be.
I early 1980's I sold Fred Weinberg one of two of my Red BU 1969S Doubled Die Cents I had just cherry picked from same roll I had stashed years earlier.
I also called Fred to receive his Numismatics LTD check in the mail for my pretty penny.
Its dumb as 69S DDO #1 is a $200,000 boo boo now, had I held onto it/them.
Dipped it and saw the old cleaning underneath.
Fortunately, I'm just a low-level collector so my "OH CR@P!!" moments have been few and far between...
As a kid (10-12yo), I recall getting 5-6 Morgan Dollars from my grandfather... and then proceeded to "work" them with cream of tartar to get the dirt off. The two that were in plastic holders escaped this fate because I couldn't figure out how to open them! Years later these two (AU 1889 and 1886 Morgans) became the first coins incorporated into my "new found" hobby. The others were harshly cleaned and ended up getting sold for silver at some point.
As an adult collector:
1- Selling the wrong coins... probably should have hanged onto a couple of Type pieces: Trade Dollar... Seated Dollar...
2- Cracking coins... FWIW, I wanted my 7070 Album to be complete... but I'm realizing the "cost of crack" now... lol!!
3- Passing on coins I probably should have bought. This was an issue for me as a lower level collector when I was trying to fill the Classic Large Cent space in my Type Set. I had a pile of $$ together and was singularly focussed to the point where I passed on a nice (AU55) certified Trade Dollar and a particular 1917 T-1 SLQ AU58FH...
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Yup, sold some gold coins in 2024 at around $2,600-ish to pay off the house. Sounded like a brilliant idea at the time. Now 1.5 years later I buy gold coins at $5k. So goes stupid me. RGDS!
The whole worlds off its rocker, buy Gold™.
BOOMIN!™
Wooooha! Did someone just say it's officially "TACO™" Tuesday????
Retiring at 55, what day is today?
A coin I had been wanting for ages finally came up at auction and I got in a bidding war for it. After all, I hadn't seen another in years so that was my only chance right? Two months later a better example appeared on Heritage and went for half what I paid.
You cherrypicked two 1969-S DDO-001 from a roll and sold them at a nice profit. How sad. :'(
Retrospective dumb sales: I sold 20 4 coin US mint gold OGP sets from 1987-92 plus a bunch of 1984 $10 Olympic gold coins over EBay back when gold just hit $4000, but then again I paid about the original mint prices at issue so I really can't complain. But I really do like gold and keep several Mexican 50 peso 1947 on my desk for making hard decisions (heads buy, tails sell).
However, according to my wife, pretty much everything I do is stupid. But then again, she believes that the 4x a week deliveries from Fed Ex are catalogs. She keeps me grounded and devious.
I got a little excited as a newbie with sending stuff off to be graded/crossed, etc. Still a newbie, and learning as I go.
Didn't fully know what I had, didn't do enough research, etc...
NGC no-line fatty w/Gold bean crossed simply for the experience of getting an "upgrade", lol.
Minimum $600 loss in value imo... The sticker was more valuable than the coin lol...
It's a bad, scan-type photo on the right, but you get the idea.
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As a teenager, unknowingly bought a 14D Lincoln from local B&M that had an added mintmark.
Top 10 Cal Fractional Type Set
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Poor Fred will never be allowed to live that down!!
Dumbest thing I ever did? I purchased a raw slider for 63 money. I sent it into NGC and it came back body bagged for PVC.
Sold it for a fraction of what I paid for it and had to eat the grading fees along with the shipping.
In my own defense, I had a dealer look at it (who was supposedly experienced) and he told me it was ‘OK’. I guess the real stupid part was trusting him.
I presume it was tuition. Today, I would never make that mistake.
Sometimes, it’s better to be LUCKY than good. 🍀 🍺👍
My Full Walker Registry Set (1916-1947):
https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/competitive-sets/16292/
It seems to be brought up once or twice a year, but it doesn’t bother me at all.
First one sold funded an amazing error coin collection built over couple decades. I literally got the call within a week of cashing Fred's check and then spent it all on that deal. Second example sold a year later paid off all my college loans past and future among other things. Always thought 69S DDO #1 was more common than collectors thought. And I figured I'd find more in the future with scoring two Red Bu in one roll. I have been incredibly fortunate cherry picking even though I really do not care for collecting varieties. I Do Love me some minting process errors !
Lindy
Wow, great moves! I like Lincoln varieties and errors. I have a decent variety Lincoln collection and an MS wheat collection compete except the 1922 no D SR is only XF, last one to find in MS.
Got a nice 1917 DDO MS64RB at auction a few months ago, so one until done. Also picked up a nice top pop PCGS 2014 DDO at a pretty reasonable price. Now I'm waiting for the new Cherrypicker to figure out which of the varieties I've got already will make the FS cut. I'm hoping for the 2015, 2019 and 2024 but who knows.
As a CC Morgan collector I used to keep a CC in my pocket. I lost three of them on separate flights. One was a 79CC in XF. Stupid mistake for not looking before exiting my seat.
I no longer keep a pocket piece.
bob
Three coins that I know I had but cannot find. One was a rare Two Cent die variety that disappeared three moves ago, then there was a 1938 Jefferson proof that I cherrypicked as mint state, also lost over twenty years ago. Recently I have been searching for a Colombian doubled die I know I owned but for some reason it wasn't put away with my other Colombian varieties.
Sean Reynolds
"Keep in mind that most of what passes as numismatic information is no more than tested opinion at best, and marketing blather at worst. However, I try to choose my words carefully, since I know that you guys are always watching." - Joe O'Connor
Had a choice raw AU 09s VDB in my Dansco 7070 album for years. Then I let one of my daughters go through the album and she was moving the slides around back and forth for no reason (she was 6). Scratched it pretty badly.
Cracked out a choice WLH is a 66 holder with a CAC sticker to put into my Dansco. This was years ago. Ended up paying $70+ for no reason to get it back in holder and sticker all over again after #1 happened and I decided to send the whole album off for grading.
In the fifth grade I took an MS RB 1857 large cent to school with me. Coin was from my grandfather. Fearing not to lose it I put it into my sock with shoes. I still have it as a completely brown almost uncirculated today. Wish I never would have messed with it.
Not knowing any better as a kid, I cleaned an 1854 Seated Liberty Half Dollar I'd inherited from my grandfather. Over 50 years later the harshness of the cleaning is still visible. Luckily it was not a rare date, but, still, it would've graded XF40 uncleaned.
Did some "cleaning experiments" when I was a YN maaaany decades ago, including what I remember were very nicely toned Morgans.....
My my, what we all learn in time 😉
Not a huge deal financially, but back in the day I had about 800 or so wheat cents. Yup, cleaned every last one of them. A year later, they're pinkish cast.
Back in the early days of slabs I cracked out a very nice lower grade 1802/0 half cent out of an ANACS holder, and while I was cracking the holder in a vice the coin popped out and dropped on a cement basement floor, putting a nice shiny new hit on the edge. At that point I had to sell the coin as-is, I couldn’t keep it and have it be a constant reminder of my careless stupidity. I was a poor caretaker of the coin, in that instance. Lesson learned.
Other passions include golf, Moto Guzzi motorcycles, and Euro motorcycles in general.
Chris
let's just say that you should check your pockets before your pants go into the dirty laundry.
I brought my first v-nickel to school during third grade. The coin was loose in a cheap album. During recess, I played out in the field and at some point the coin fell out. I had just bought that coin from a shop earlier that week
Yesterday, I put an AU 1964 cent in an Airtite.
The usual stuff as a child collector in the 50’s. Cleaned everything, with chemicals, erasers, etc. I think I simply spent everything once I figured out what I had done. As an adult, once tried acetone on a semi-key MS RB Lincoln, ruined the toning, but I think it may have been doctored before I bought it.
I tried to scratch off a spot with a paper clip once. Didn’t end well. Recently I pinked the edge of a $30k raw copper just handling it too much. 😱
Empty Nest Collection