Give us your best "collecting in the old days" stories.

shirohniichan · September 21, 2006 7:07AM

Feel free to make one up, as long as it is creative or contains at least a modicum of truth.

We hear or read about all kinds of rarities for sale cheap on the one hand, and rampant whizzing/tooling/doctoring on the other hand. What were the good and the bad when you first started collecting?

AgMe · September 21, 2006 7:18AM

A year or two ago, I was offered ~$500+ USD for my 1999 proof set... I think I paid $17 when I bought it.

(I didn't sell)

...then the 3 cheerio sacs I told someone to cut out and spend... about $15,000 USD lost... eh, who knew.

hiyosilver · September 21, 2006 7:23AM

I remember as a teenager working at my dads gas station and having a customer show us a aluminum roosevelt dime. I offered to buy it just because I thought it was cool, he turned me down.

I still wonder what happened to that coin.

Manuel

Weiss · September 21, 2006 7:25AM

I got a $20 gift certificate to the local coin shop when I was about 8 (would have been in the mid-1970s). No such thing as slabs (or even flips, IIRC!). I remember handing the certificate to the shop keeper--kind of a gruff old guy who didn't really like kids too much--and pointing to his tray of Morgans & Peace dollars:

I want that one.

Ok.

and that one.

Ok.

and that one.

No, that one is too much.

then that one.

Ok.

and that one...

dorkkarl · September 21, 2006 8:13AM

here's the deal for me - not especially creative or amazing, but 100% the truth. i barely caught the tail end of silver coinage disappearing out of circulation when i started collecting, and then thru probably the 1st gas crisis of the early 1970s, you could STILL find decent coins in change, not say seated or barber coins, but plenty of silver quarters, early jeffies, etc. i put away alot of fond memories of collecting that way.

for some weird reason, i always associate the demise of collecting from change, ie. being able to find silver frequently, w/ the advent of that round of oil shortages.

you can't hardly find jack in your pocket change today. what i used to find in pocket change, you have to BUY in PLA$TIC today - imagine that!

K S

nwcs · September 21, 2006 8:27AM

I remember when I was 15 and went to a local show. I went to this dealer's table to look at the coins and he was trying to hock some beat up AG and worse war nickels to me and my brother. We said we'd pass but then the phrase we have never forgotten, "if you shine them up, they'll be BU!" And he meant it!

AmericanCopper · September 21, 2006 8:28AM

In the "Good 'Ol Days" of collecting, I would go to the bank and get rolls and rolls of coins to search. This was back when you could still go the the banks and get Morgans and Peace dollars at face - you just had to ask the tellers for them. In a 20-roll lot of Lincolns I would usually pull out 4 or 5 Indianheads and in the nickel rolls it wasn't uncommon to find two or three Liberty Heads. My oldest coin I found in roll searching was a very worn 1843-O Seated quarter that was holed. Boy, I sure miss those days.

DNADave · September 21, 2006 8:41AM

For me, it was $20 to $30 for 1921 Peace Dollars in fair condition. Sure wish I'd bought a few more.

291fifth · September 21, 2006 9:02AM

In 1962-3 I had only been collecting for about a year. One of my father's ex-high school students had become a coin dealer and knew I collected Lincoln cents. He offered me a 1914-D. I immediately spotted it as being an altered date 1944-D. So much for that dealer.

shirohniichan · September 21, 2006 9:11AM

Way back in the old days, I used to work selling hot lunches at school while I was in 6th grade. The only "pay" we received was a free lunch and the perk of being able to set aside a carton of chocolate milk for ourselves before it sold out. Another perk was being able to buy coins out of the till at face value. I got a couple of buffalo nickels and a 1926-S Lincoln in VF+ at face value. Fortunately, I learned not to scrub my coins with copper cleaner as I'd done before by the time I got the '26-S.

cladking · September 21, 2006 9:13AM

These are the good old days.

It's always been the good old days but that's probably more true now than ever
before.

One of my favorite times was the late '70's. I had checked a Krause world coin cat-
alog out of the library to try to memorize all the world silver coins so I could pick them
out of poundage and dealer stock. Silver had run up to over $4 per ounce just a cou-
ple years earlier in 1974 and there was still a mixture of all sorts of coins in the bulk
lots that dealers sold. You could pick up coins with two or three dollars worth of sil-
ver in them for "3 for a dollar". As the decade wore on the price of silver just kept go-
ing up. Of course the silver was disappearing as well.

In the process though I learned something about what coins were available and what
weren't. There were many cu/ ni coins that were common in poundage in worn out con-
dition but nearly impossible in unc. This gave me something to do in the '80's.

cladking · September 21, 2006 9:14AM

Oh, I was collecting in the '50's and '60's but those were the good old days only if you had money to spend. I didn't.

lava · September 21, 2006 9:16AM

My grandfather was sweet on this lady of the evening and used to pay her with Morgan dollars. It became a joke with them because she said she would never part with them. They kept in touch, and it was a running joke for many years. She even shared the story with her daughter and instructed her not to part with them after she was gone. Well fast forward, my father gets the idea of contacting the daughter to see if the romp in the hay hoard was still around, and sure enough, the daughter had kept them all. After some horse trading my father got all of the Morgans back, and both sides made out quite nicely.

Top that one.

Outhaul · September 21, 2006 9:30AM

An UNC 1955/55 DDO for $50.00

dorkkarl · September 21, 2006 9:48AM

i missed out on buying silver $ at face value, but i do remember when they cost about $3, and that was UNCS!

K S

prenum · September 21, 2006 10:01AM

We used to play baseball in a little park. Just down the street was a small corner store - Sammys. This was around 1960, in upstate New York. I was around 9 years old.

Prices were a littlle different then. For instance we used to look for empty soda bottles and return them for 2c. each. A few found bottles was like striking it rich.

After playing ball one afternoon we headed over to Sammys to buy some buy candy. You could get 2 or 3 pieces for a penny. After picking out a couple of pieces I noticed that something was wrong with the penny that I was about to give Sammy. It was all doubled. Oh well I hoped he would take it anyway!

My first 1955/55 - didn't own it long, and I forget what the candy was!

Swampboy · September 21, 2006 10:18AM

I came home one night in the early seventies and found my daughter had taken a tobacco tin of coins I had in my dresser.
They were scattered all over the house.
I found almost all of them. Some of them were stuck down in the spaces between the floorboards. It was an old house. The kind of house
where any loose marbles could be found in one corner.
The one coin I never found was Merc 1916D.
When we moved out I walked around in the dark shining a flashlight down between each floorboard.
Gone......but not forgotten.

curly · September 21, 2006 10:32AM

In the military, in the early 60s, I was stationed in Klamath Falls, Oregon. To make ends meet, I worked in a gas station. Klamath Falls was a direct line out of Nevada and people were always anxious to get rid of those darn silver dollars. When they would stop to buy gas, they would always use them first. As we had no place in the till, we would throw them in a bucket under the counter.

When the bucket got full, I would take them to the bank.

edited: spelling

Veep · September 21, 2006 10:34AM

In the early 70's my Dad would visit a coin shop/barber shop a couple of towns over. I'd usually go with. My modest means begot a modest collection and I'd always dreamt of having a Carson City coin. One day, the old time dealer (always a real nice guy) offerred me an AG 1878-CC Morgan for 4 or 5 dollars. I jumped all over it I cherished that coin, its romance of the old west, its character, and all of that stuff. I wonder what ever happened to it.

My Dad also graduated to a little dealing on the side. I remember him spilling out a bagful of silver dollars that he bought from some dealer for $2.65 each. What a sight it was to see a couple thousand silver dollars spilled out on the living room floor. He later sold that horde and barely got his money before the dealer went bankrupt.

morgansforever · September 21, 2006 10:44AM

When I was a freshman in high school, my friend stole 3 rolls of quarters, so we could go to the fair. Not just any quarters, 3 rolls of bank wrapped 83 P's. In 83 we thought we were rich. Wish I had those 3 rolls today.

stev32k · September 21, 2006 10:55AM

For me it was searching rolls of coins with my Grandfather in the late 40's to early 50's. He had a list of key dates like the 1877 Indian head penny, 1921-S liberty walking half, 1917 type 1 SLQ, 1909 & 1911 Lincoln penny, and others I don't remember. The only one on the list I'm sure I found was the 1917 type 1 SLQ. But all the coins were either silver or copper. We searched pennys, nickels, dimes, quarters, halves, and dollars. Indian head pennies, liberty and buffalo nickels, SLQ quarters, and Barber coins were all common. Seated liberty liberty coins were rare, but not unusual. Nearly all the halves were liberty walking, and nearly all the dollars were Morgans.

My Grandfather died in 1964 the year clad coins came out, and I still miss that nice old man.

He used to tell me how much he liked me helping him search coins. He said if I was not there my Grandmother complained that he was not doing anything - just wasting time, and he even had to fix his own lunch. When I was there my Grandmother never complained, cooked all day, and even took an interest in some of the coins. I always thought that was funny.

shirohniichan · September 22, 2006 5:25AM

Back in my day, the coins you all call "classics" were just modern crap to us... and that's the way we liked it!

Like the time my pappy and I were in Lousiana back in '05 (pronounced "ot-five") and gave me $20. I wanted to get some of the newest, shiniest coins I could get, so we went to a bank. The teller said I could either have a roll of 1903 or 1904 dollars from the New Orleans Mint or a mixed roll of Seated Liberty dollars, so I naturally got me a roll of the '04's. Who'd want the old '03's or seated coins, anyway? They weren't as fresh as the '04's.

We drove through Denver back in October of 1922. My pappy said he'd give me $500 to buy whatever I wanted, so I ran over to the bank. They had a bag of 1916-D dimes and a bag of the new 1922 Peace dollars. I bought that bag of dollars quicker than you can say "Jack Robinson". Who'd want to collect them little fish scale coins when you can have big, brand new silver dollars?

I haven't checked the price lists, but i'm sure I invested wisely. After all, you're supposed to get the best condition coins you can afford, right? By getting the newest ones, I figured they'd be the least banged up and the best value for my money!

RichieURich · September 22, 2006 5:28AM

shirohniichan, when you were in Denver in 1922, why didn't you buy a bag of those pennies missing the "D"?

ccr · September 22, 2006 5:38AM

There use to be a ton of wheat cents in your change back in the 70`s. Use to be fairly easy to fill a Whitman set 1941 to present back then. Those days where fun tring to hustle my Dad for change ( which he usually gave in

) Now, I`m lucky find 1 in a year.

War nickels where easier to find too.

shirohniichan · September 22, 2006 5:39AM

<< shirohniichan, when you were in Denver in 1922, why didn't you buy a bag of those pennies missing the "D"? >>

I don't collect little coins-- just big 'uns!

Coxe · September 22, 2006 5:54AM

In the 1970s, whenI was also collecting beer cans, I had an interesting find. I was at an old canal-side settlement that had burned down almost a century prior. Kids for decades had been sitting among the foundations and ruins there to drink beer and smoke cigarettes. Usually found rusty old cans but a few nice flat tops and cone tops. Anyway, nearby is an active railrod tunnel that was built WAY BACK. In looking around, I found an old wooden box and a cloth bag. The bag was stained and deteriorating but has some coins in it. The box had explosives. Turned out it was unrecovered from the Civil War and was to blow up the tunnel if the Confederate troops got that far by rail to slow them down. All were carefully removed and I didn't get the coins either.

bidask · September 22, 2006 6:17AM

Not related to coins but around 1960 I bought a pack of topps baseball cards ( 5 cards inside with the gum ) for 5 cents and in it were 3 Stan Musials. WOWEE.

ziggy29 · September 22, 2006 6:19AM

<< My grandfather was sweet on this lady of the evening and used to pay her with Morgan dollars. ... After some horse trading my father got all of the Morgans back, and both sides made out quite nicely. >>

Guess this shows how my corrupted mind works.

WWW · September 22, 2006 6:33AM

I remember as kid living in Hawaii back in the early 60's, that my dad, who worked for the Bank of Hawaii, was offered
his choice of a Hawaiian commemorative or a 50 pound sack of Kona coffee. He took coffee. Incidentally, I also remember
at the time, seeing those coins stored in boxes on top of the bags of coffee, and I think that is why some of these coins have
that rather 'unique' toning coloration endemic to this commemorative.

coindeuce · September 22, 2006 11:05AM

My favorite story is more about some characters in the hobby than the actual collecting of coins. Anyone here with a more detailed version of the incident is most welcome to add subtract or correct me in any way plausible. Seems that during the tenure of the not-so-well-regarded Walter Breen with his employer at the time of New Amsterdam Coin Co., Walter had a habit of snacking on munchies during the course of the work day. One day the highly regarded Mrs. R. Henry Norweb appeared at the premises of the above with great pomp and circumstance. With her unexpected arrival, the employees scurried about to present themselves in a proper fashion(that is of course all but Walter) for the esteemed Ambassador's wife, who was never shy about her propensity to spend large sums of money on rare coinage. In the employees' haste to provide Mrs. Norweb all of the etiquette due a woman of such social standing, she was immediately offered a seat. Only problem was though that W.B. has just vacated the seat while enjoying a quick snack of a chocolate candy bar, part of which he had deposited on the seat unbeknownst to the employee who had offered her the comfort. Mrs. Norweb promptly seated herself while distracted by all of the attention received from the fawning employees. It was not until Mrs. Norweb finished her viewing session and had bid farewell to the most gracious hosts, as she arose from her seated position to reveal the now melted glob of chocolate smeared all over her fine clothing! The horror of this extreme faux pax left the hosts in such a state of shock that no one dared speak a word of this calamity. Mrs. Norweb left the premises, and never spoke of this to anyone employed at New Amsterdam henceforth.

coindeuce · September 22, 2006 11:29AM

yellowjacket · September 22, 2006 11:39AM

In 1960 Fort Worth had just been introduced to coin collecting as a nine-year-old. I had familiarized myself with Mercury dimes: mintages, prices from the Red Book, and so forth. I bought a Popcicle from the ice cream man. Paid with a quarter and, checking my change, noticed I had received a 1921 Merc. I thought I had hit the jackpot!

yellowjacket · September 22, 2006 11:43AM

In 1961 Wayne, PA I was probably pretty obnoxious checking everone's pocket change. I was in the lunch line and my buddy had his lunch money out. In checking it, I found a 1950-D nickel. I offered a nickel in exchange. "No dice." He ran me up to 25c! I felt I had made a bonehead play until Fisher's Coins in Ardmore gave me $15.00 for it.

yellowjacket · September 22, 2006 11:45AM

I took in trade three rolls of "Pointed Tail" 1964 Roosevelt dimes. Who remembers those? For the longest time they seemed to be real losers. That was until the Hunt Brothers tried to corner the silver market in 1980. I traded those rolls at 21 times face!

EagleEye · September 22, 2006 11:55AM

It was 1977. I was working at a Coin Shop in Rockaway NJ. I bought a 1794 Large cent in VF over the counter for $100. The owner said I overpaid, so I said I'd buy it myself. I tried to attribut it but didn't find it. A few years later sold it a friend, Harry Resigno for $300. He discovered that it was a rare variety (NC-4 I believe). I determined right then to study varieties and attribute everything.

At the latest LB show I saw a new book on condition census 1793 and 1794 Large Cents by Bill Noyes. I flipped through the 1794's to see if I could recognize the coin. Lo and behold there it was. And Bill had even gotten me into the pedigree list! Thanks Harry!

RWB · September 22, 2006 12:00PM

"After some horse trading my father got all of the Morgans back, and both sides made out quite nicely."

Great set up to the pun !

When I was 12, I was allowed to go the the local bank one Saturday morning a month and look through all the silver dollars they had. Any that I wanted for my collection, I paid for with my lawn mowing income.

roadrunner · September 22, 2006 12:07PM

Around 1975 while still a young seated collector I hit my local shop one Saturday and spied a tough 1852 seated quarter in Fine - priced at $20. Not a bad deal. Then I saw an "O" mint mark on the reverse. An 1852-0 25c in Fine was worth more like $250. I quickly paid the dealer his $20 and shipped the coin off to Kam Ahwash the following week for $250. The reverse had a heavy streak of toning that sort of hid the mintmark.

My other neat find, was being clued in on a seated half dollar deal that broke in Mass. around 1988. It was a nice set of about 200 pieces in XF to UNC/PF. Represented in there were many scarcer O,S and P mints. A Good+ 1797 half was included as was a choice unc 1874-CC half! There were some capped bust halves as well. The prices were sort of steep on the first go around so I brought in a higher powered dealer to split the deal with me and drive the prices down. He did just that knocking off about 30% off many of the prices. We cherry picked a bunch of the coins including the 1874-cc for $6K. It graded out PCGS MS63. I've seen the coin since in a 64 holder and possibly now a 65. That was one that would have been worth keeping.

roadrunner

TwoSides2aCoin · September 22, 2006 12:10PM

When I was a kid, this was still an old coin.
It's got 180 degree rotated die with a repunched date (ooops, I said Mint mark earlier

)
After I grew up I decided to sell my stuff on ebay .....where it's listed today

are short stories okay ?

edit to correct self

mozeppa · September 22, 2006 12:11PM

when I was a small fry I worked as a bus boy in a food court that my mom managed.....(...at that age I'd have never been hired by anyone else.)
at lunchtime I was allowed to go by myself to the coin shop down the street. well...since mom started me in the coin collecting HABIT...i had to have my weekly "fix"
I'd get let in (security door buzzes you in )...and the musty smells of old people.... cigar smoke and moldy leather binders, whitman folders would attack the nostrils.

ahhhhh!...it was heaven.

I'd always pour over the 1909 to 1940 blue whitman folder of Lincoln cents, carefully picking out my next new purchase of worn out old coppers.
this was easy because the old man who ran the store would write the price he was wanting for each coin in pencil at the 2 o'clock position of every hole in the folder.

7 cents for this one ...9 cents for that one ....HOLY MACKERAL!!! ...78 CENTS FOR THAT ONE?....THATS INSANE!
I always went on friday (the day i got paid) and spent my whole lunch hour there. .. I never spent much...cuz I didn't make much.

It seems that there was another old man there at the same time I was ...every Friday, doing the same thing I was doing...except he was collecting 20 dollar gold pieces.
I peeked under his shoulder once (out of curiosity).... yep same type of whitman blue folder alrighty....big yellow coins plugged into holes in it...same thing so far.

prices written at 2 o'clock just like what I was used to seeing....WAIT A MINUTE!....HOLD THE PHONE!.....$26 FOR ONE COIN?....$28.50 ?...FOR ONE COIN?...$32.50 ...FOR ONE???

WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND SPENDS TWICE WHAT I MADE IN A WEEK FOR ONE COIN...THAT SAY'S "TWENTY DOLLARS" RIGHT ON IT???
In my youth I couldn't fathom why anyone would spend $32 bucks for a $20 dollar coin!...seemed counter productive to me at the time!
but I kept my silence...and allowed the depravity to weekly display itself.

The shop owner had a large brandy snifter sitting right on the counter top with what appeared to have about a roll of lincoln cents in the bottom of it.
I never paid any attention to it until the owner said to another customer one " hey wait!...you spent more than 20 bucks....you get a free gift "

so he reaches into the brandy snfter gets a penny a tosses it to him, and say's ..." here...have an accident!"

at that point I became curious and asked what he meant...so he got one out and showed me my first 1955 doubled die cent that I'd ever seen.
he said he'd recently bought up an estate that had a couple rolls of those...didn't think much of them and thought they'd be a novel give-a-way to his best customers.

I said "they're all stamped blurry ...if I get one it will be a nice one!"

true story...sadly

live and learn...I have one now.... but not at those prices.

rec78 · September 22, 2006 4:00PM

This is a true story--

Back in the 1960's practically no one wanted error coins. I was offered a 1893 morgan dollar struck off center about 20% for $10 . I thought it was really neat but $10 for an error like that? Not for me.

A local dealer bought a lot of Pattern coins from the King Farouk collection. In the 1960's not many people collected patterns either..Some of them he had a price of $80 marked on them. Me--I spent my $80 on an 1802 dime with a hole in it that was ugly (i bought it because i had never seen an 1802 dime before and thought that it was very rare) I bought that instead of a Gem Proof Liberty seated Pattern dollar with a mintage of about 80 coins that now sells for about $12,000 or more. I sold the 1802 dime a few years later for about $90 just to get rid of it. "SIGH".

AmericanCopper · September 22, 2006 4:09PM

<< and the musty smells of old people.... cigar smoke and moldy leather binders, whitman folders would attack the nostrils. >>

My God, Mozeppa..We went to the SAME coin shop!!

TwoSides2aCoin · September 22, 2006 4:16PM

Mozeppa, your story of the doubled die '55 even puts a frown in

<-----MY NAME

J

E

mozeppa · September 23, 2006 1:13AM

<< 

<< and the musty smells of old people.... cigar smoke and moldy leather binders, whitman folders would attack the nostrils. >>

My God, Mozeppa..We went to the SAME coin shop!! >>

would that be the OBER building coin shop , 2nd floor. in downtown indianapolis?....that was you?

Stooge · September 23, 2006 1:37AM

My brother was the one who got me started in coin collecting when I was 5 years old (Early 70's) I had a fasination with big dollar coins like the IKE dollar. My dad had a few friends that sold him coins and he brought home an 1827 Bust Half (I could be wrong on the date) and this coin was easily a MS64. I had it in a 2x2 and carried it with me showing my friends. Well one day, my brother and I went to a place called Cherryvale coins and stamps and the ownder had a brand new 1973-S Silver Dollar in a 2x2 and wanted $175 for it. I wanted it badly because my brother said it was going to skyrocket in price due to the mint melting a bunch of them. I told the shop owner that I was wanting it real bad and she said that she would trade me for it, and I whipped out this 1827. In about 2.2 seconds she said OK and got that IKE out faster then you could believe and then I owned the "Coin of my dreams"

The IKE is now worth about $35 graded and the 1827 Bust half...well lets just say I don't even want to know. My Father was really disappointed that I made that trade and actually brought it up to me in a conversation right before he passed. I to this day reflect back on that trade and wish to God that I could take it back.

By the way, I brought the IKE to grade school and had it in a show-n-tell and someone swiped it during recess! I only owned it for 2 weeks or so.

Later, Paul.

sumnom · September 23, 2006 2:02AM

My dad held on to my better coins for me until I was older to prevent exactly this sort of thing from happening. It's terrible that your dad mentioned this incident just before his passing. I'm sorry to hear that.

LickThoseStamps · September 23, 2006 2:11AM

These are the good old days. It will just take some of you about 30 years to realize it.

It is still possible to get rolls/accumulations of coins from the Bank of eBay, search though them and return the ones you don’t want to keep. If you factor in the inflation of the dollar, then your equivalent cost (in terms of today’s buying power) will be closer to face value than you realize.

I believe that it is easier to put together fairly complete collections of 20th century coins today, than it was 30-40 years ago.

For example, several years ago, I bought a couple of rolls of circulated Washington quarters on eBay. While searching through them, I noted that the dates and mintmarks varied considerably. I purchased a Whitman album and put the quarters in them. When I was finished, I had a complete set of 1932-1964 quarters, minus the two 1932 key dates. Many of the ones from the 1940s and early 1950s were XF-AU. Having paper routes in the early 1960s and searching every coin that passed through my hands, I was never able to complete such a set.

Thirty years from now, people will be posting messages about the early days of eBay.

Yep! These are the good old days

ANACONDA · September 23, 2006 2:58AM

I got into coin collecting a few years before PCGS was born. I remember sitting in Bob Medlar's office, if you know him, talking coins, showing raw coins to each other. This was twenty two years ago, in 1984.

I also remember seeing the actor who plays Bull, at a Long Beach show in 1985 or so.

cladking · September 23, 2006 7:23AM

I dumped the prettiest bag of 1982-P quarters you ever saw on my mom's kithen table
and told her that they'd be worth as much as a house some day. Of course I couldn't
afford to keep $1,000 worth of one date but did find several dozens of nice choice and
gem coins to save. They were almost all choice so I suppose you could already get a
nice small house if you had them. Most were put back into circulation mixed in with other
coins.

It's a shame I never did find a really nice bag of the '83-P. I spent a lot of time looking
but there just weren't any released in this area or anywhere else I looked.

coinguy1 · September 23, 2006 7:31AM

I grew up (approximately ages 6-17) in NYC and often went to Stack's on Saturday mornings. One time, when I was about 12 years old, when I bought a coin from them, I received in change, a 1942/1 dime.

I was thrilled and kept looking at it, as I was having a hard time believing it. Some time later, I sold it to them for (if I am remembering right, roughly 40 years later) $75. When I did so, I was a smarty pants too - I said to them "Don't you check your change?". If they'd had a fly swatter, I think they would have used it on me.

roadrunner · September 23, 2006 8:03AM

Mark, I've only bought 2 raw coins from Stack's store front. It occured during one of their auction sale viewings in 1988. While being bored waiting for coins I looked through their trays. Pulled out a MS63 1839 dime and a MS63 1870 deated dollar - both raw of course. Both were nice orig and choice coins. Before I got out of the store that day one dealer tried to buy them both from me for a small profit. I declined and sent both in for grading and got 64's on both of them. I'm 2 for 2 for Stack's and will likely keep it that way.

roadrunner

Bunker · September 23, 2006 9:52AM

<< My brother was the one who got me started in coin collecting when I was 5 years old (Early 70's) I had a fasination with big dollar coins like the IKE dollar. My dad had a few friends that sold him coins and he brought home an 1827 Bust Half (I could be wrong on the date) and this coin was easily a MS64. I had it in a 2x2 and carried it with me showing my friends. Well one day, my brother and I went to a place called Cherryvale coins and stamps and the ownder had a brand new 1973-S Silver Dollar in a 2x2 and wanted $175 for it. I wanted it badly because my brother said it was going to skyrocket in price due to the mint melting a bunch of them. I told the shop owner that I was wanting it real bad and she said that she would trade me for it, and I whipped out this 1827. In about 2.2 seconds she said OK and got that IKE out faster then you could believe and then I owned the "Coin of my dreams" >>

<< The IKE is now worth about $35 graded and the 1827 Bust half...well lets just say I don't even want to know. My Father was really disappointed that I made that trade and actually brought it up to me in a conversation right before he passed. I to this day reflect back on that trade and wish to God that I could take it back. >>

<< By the way, I brought the IKE to grade school and had it in a show-n-tell and someone swiped it during recess! I only owned it for 2 weeks or so. >>

I am sorry to hear that Paul

Give us your best "collecting in the old days" stories.

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Give us your best &quot;collecting in the old days&quot; stories.

Comments

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Give us your best "collecting in the old days" stories.