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Dealers....Please tell us some cool stories.
ldhair
Posts: 7,441 ✭✭✭✭✭
I thought it might be fun if you guys could share some stories of coins or collections that walk in your door.
We all hear the stories where the customer is disappointed to learn his holdings have little real value.
Maybe stories where the customer has a treasure and does not know.
What's the coolest coin you had to watch walk back out the door.
We all hear the stories where the customer is disappointed to learn his holdings have little real value.
Maybe stories where the customer has a treasure and does not know.
What's the coolest coin you had to watch walk back out the door.
Larry
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He agreed and I sent it to Dallas and was told in Dallas that if they cracked the coin out and resubmitted it it woud come back in a 63 holder! FLUSTERED now I said " please just crack it and send it in"..
Imagine how happy we all were when it came back a few days later........................in a MS-65 holder
Tom
Coin's for sale/trade.
Tom Pilitowski
US Rare Coin Investments
800-624-1870
<< <i>received a partial original ROLL! I think it contained 30 + pieces of choice unc. 1858 Half Dimes! >>
I have several mediocre stories, but no "1804 Dollar" stories. Here's a recent one:
Our office is in the Bank One building in Grand Rapids, Michigan. We are about 20 feet from the bank vault (safety deposit boxes). Once in awhile people will clean out their safety deposit boxes and bring coins/currency to us for a verbal opinion. The bank staff usually recommends their clients to us.
Several months ago, the bank brought an elderly lady to our office with 4 rolls of Indian Cents. They had belonged to her husband and she had forgotten about them. He passed away 20 years earlier. I began opening the rolls....one at a time. The first roll: 50 common dates/common condition coins worth $1 each. Next roll: same thing. Third roll: same thing. She seemed disappointed and discouraged. Perhaps her husband had told her that the old coppers were valuable and she had expectations?
Well, when I opened the fourth roll my mouth dropped to my feet. It was a roll of mixed date Indians that were ALL UNCIRCULATED, including some early dates. Well, all were uncirculated except for one: an 1877 in Choice VF. When I told her what the coins were worth she smiled from ear-to-ear and you could just feel her happiness. She said that she wanted to keep the coins for awhile, but would sell them to us in the future. I will never forget the look on her face.
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<< <i>I have several mediocre stories, but no "1804 Dollar" stories. Here's a recent one:
Our office is in the Bank One building in Grand Rapids, Michigan. We are about 20 feet from the bank vault (safety deposit boxes). Once in awhile people will clean out their safety deposit boxes and bring coins/currency to us for a verbal opinion. The bank staff usually recommends their clients to us.
Several months ago, the bank brought an elderly lady to our office with 4 rolls of Indian Cents. They had belonged to her husband and she had forgotten about them. He passed away 20 years earlier. I began opening the rolls....one at a time. The first roll: 50 common dates/common condition coins worth $1 each. Next roll: same thing. Third roll: same thing. She seemed disappointed and discouraged. Perhaps her husband had told her that the old coppers were valuable and she had expectations?
Well, when I opened the fourth roll my mouth dropped to my feet. It was a roll of mixed date Indians that were ALL UNCIRCULATED, including some early dates. Well, all were uncirculated except for one: an 1877 in Choice VF. When I told her what the coins were worth she smiled from ear-to-ear and you could just feel her happiness. She said that she wanted to keep the coins for awhile, but would sell them to us in the future. I will never forget the look on her face. >>
Nice to hear these kinds of stories for a change, instead of the usual "How I ripped off the old lady" stories.
Connor Numismatics Website
Now thats the kind of story I love to here.
All great stories.
Thanks
See, we were a SMALL dealer in Sacramento. So da story ain't about the REAL 1804 dollar.
OUR STORY was that one day the COPS called me and asked if I would be in to talk about an 1804 dollar.
It was my pawn detail guy and it seems that the local SLEAZE......who had his license jerked (but still hung around the shop that was now being run by his WIFE) had made some folderol deal with a local guy to sell him an 1804 dollar for ............. $30,000
The cop wanted to know if that wasn't an awful rare coin for that price and I told him yes.
Whatever transpired, the guy didn't get burned and Mr. Sleaze went back to his practice of telling folks that although he couldn't BUY any jewelry for them, he could SELL it to SOMEONE ELSE for them.
So I called the law again and it finally stopped.
The End
Senior Numismatist
Legend Rare Coin Auctions
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Coin's for sale/trade.
Tom Pilitowski
US Rare Coin Investments
800-624-1870
<< <i>Is a part of the thread missing? I see Shamika reference a post about 1858 Half Dimes, but I don't see it in the thread? >>
Was wondering the same thing.
(Carl Wohlforth has reprinted it on his website- thanks, Carl!)
I call it "Poetic Justice: The Scammer Who Scammed Himself".
Collector since 1976. On the CU forums here since 2001.
The first thing we opened was a 1936 Proof set. Just kept getting better and better. Nice 1877 cent, nice SVDB, nice type. We made copious notes, did the math and told the man that the collection was worth some figure starting with $47,000.
The man was overwhelmed, and said that he had to call his wife. We handed him a phone and he called her with the good news. When he was done he hung up and asked me. "So how much will you give me for it?" He thought that the number I gave him was retail.
I looked at Bob, Bob looked at me and I told the man "You don't understand. We will pay you $47xxx for the collection." He almost fell off the chair, and said "I gotta call my wife again."
We bought the collection.
TD
"Everything is on its way to somewhere. Everything." - George Malley, Phenomenon
http://www.american-legacy-coins.com
I'll tell one and if this thread stays alive, I will tell a couple more.
Several years back, a guy comes into the store and he has a nice selection of gold coins to sell, $16,000+ worth. As my dealer friend was handing him the check, the seller asked if my dealer friend was interested in buying more. "How much more?", my dealer friend asked.
"I have about 3 times this much yet." came the reply.
It seems the seller had bought an old "fix it upper" from a state auction. A old gent passed away, and had no relatives and no will. When the seller (of the gold) and the buyer of the old house, finally got around to digging up the flower beds, he hit several PVC capped pipes that all contained gold coins.
Hows that for a "circulation find"?
Pete
Louis Armstrong
That collection also yielded 4,000+ "V" Nickels including an 1885, 3,000+ Buffalo Nickels, including a 3-Leg XF45, every Indian Cent, a box of Large Cents, Type Coins and on and on. I worked on that collection off and on for a few weeks, eventually sending about 100 coins to PCGS where we sold them at FUN for strong prices. Boy, she was happy and I had the experience of a lifetime.
Recipient of the coveted "You Suck" award, April 2009 for cherrypicking a 1833 CBHD LM-5, and April 2022 for a 1835 LM-12, and again in Aug 2012 for picking off a 1952 FS-902.
Veep.........what an awesome experience that must have been!
UtahCoin.........that thing is neat! A shame about the coins though, but still really neat!
Too many positive BST transactions with too many members to list.