What numismatic blunder do you regret?

bushmaster8 · November 18, 2007 5:04AM

Of course, we have all sold coins we wish we still owned, so let's not talk about those!

When the Blue tag generation of PCGS slabs was brand new, I sent a whole slew of OGH's in for reholdering so that my sets would all have matching new blue holders!

NHSBaseball · November 18, 2007 5:07AM

Taking my coin collection from my parent's house with me to college, where it was promptly stolen...

STONE · November 18, 2007 5:11AM

THere's only a couple of coins I regret selling, but most of them I still have. (The reasons for selling them were to flip for some quick cash).

The numismatic blunder I regret the most would have to be passing up on a collection of Bust Quarters and Dimes when I was 15. This collection would have exhumed all of my relatively small savings.

Weiss · November 18, 2007 5:12AM

Selling off virtually all of my collection in my early teens to play video games and eat fast food

gecko109 · November 18, 2007 5:12AM

Buying too many raw "high grade" type coins far too early in my numismatic life. Just 1 example, an 1858 flying cent that a certain dealer told me was 62/63 all day long. Bought it for $320, sent it to PCGS, comes back AU58. I know thats not a jaw dropper, but string 10-15 such events together, and you have a sizable beginner's mistake. Therefore, my advice to any newer collectors out there: Do ALOT of research about coins before you start buying, especially raw.

tradedollarnut · November 18, 2007 5:14AM

Passing on the $5,000,000 1804 $10 @ $585,000 about 5 years ago.

StampAlarm · November 18, 2007 5:14AM

Cracking out a 1890-S Morgan that was stuck upside down in a rattler.

Was a 65, now a 63

Jerry

Gemineye · November 18, 2007 5:25AM

Eating Kellog's Frosted Flakes in 2000 instead of Cheerios......

smokincoin · November 18, 2007 5:28AM

In my case the question should be: WHICH numismatic blunder do you regret most?

roadrunner · November 18, 2007 5:29AM

Giving a low 5 figure consignment of $20's back in the early 1990's to Beavertown Coin of New Jersey. They kept 50% of the coins, declared bankruptcy but now back in business once again and still an upstanding ANA life-member.

roadrunner

rhedden · November 18, 2007 5:31AM

Back in 2002, an 1802 bust half in F+/VF was offered to me at $800, and I passed on it because it had one or two faint hairlines crossing the obverse, and I wasn't 100% sure it would slab. Plus, it was priced over Red Book VF, so who would pay crazy money like that?

coindeuce · November 18, 2007 5:39AM

...Passing on the PCGS PR-64 1878 7TF Rev.'79 Morgan in 1995 @25K.

Even Jack Lee never owned this coin.

ram1946 · November 18, 2007 5:39AM

Like so many, losing my interest as I "matured" from childhood into adulthood. Those toys of my past (coin collections, baseball cards,etc) were no longer "necessary" as I became older. I sold off my collection of coins accumulated from going through the Sunday collection in western Massachusetts. This, of course, was in the late 50's/early 60's. Oh yeah, I threw out my basbeball card collection from the same period. If God had given me another half brain during that "maturity" period I would have been a complete fool!

Coinlearner · November 18, 2007 5:44AM

Not taking a job at a coin shop in my "younger" years. Would have gained valuable knowlege/experience. I passed on offer.

Rarity · November 18, 2007 5:53AM

Reject the 1907 No Motto $10 Indian Gold in virtually perfect condition (PCGS-64) back in 1996 for $2800. Since then, I have never seen a 64 or 65 $10 Indian gold nicer than that coin.

mrearlygold · November 18, 2007 6:13AM

Well not the worst but selling my 1796 Eagle in Choice AU ( 6 years ago ) that would be in a 61 holder nowadays.

orie · November 18, 2007 6:15AM

The $160 so called dollar bought two weeks ago Monday on ebay that hasn't arrived and haven't heard a word from the AH.

tydye · November 18, 2007 6:17AM

Selling a 1858-O Liberty Seated Half when i was in my 20s that took me months to pay off when I was a kid. It was my first major coin. And the only one I truly regret selling. It was just a nice orginal XF/AU but I remember staring at it for hours when I was a kid.

BBN · November 18, 2007 6:21AM

<< Selling a 1858-O Liberty Seated Half when i was in my 20s that took me months to pay off when I was a kid. It was my first major coin. And the only one I truly regret selling. It was just a nice orginal XF/AU but I remember staring at it for hours when I was a kid. >>

I've had in possession five different Saints over the last four years in PCGS slabs. I just recenly got another one. I would have me a nice start to a Saint registry set had I hung on to all of them.

dizzyfoxx · November 18, 2007 6:21AM

Trading away this!!!!!!!!

Broadstruck · November 18, 2007 6:49AM

When I was in my 20's I sold David Lawrence a Gem Toned 1914-P Barber Half that had a small maybe 1/4" or less staple scratch in the obverse left field. The coin body bagged at Pcgs, and I didn't want a problem coin. David almost like my father asked me 5 times if I was sure if I wanted to sell as I might regret it. 6 months later major seperation anxiety set in, and now well over 15 years later I still haven't found a coin that can top it's overall eye appeal.

Young-n-Dumb

SLQ · November 18, 2007 6:50AM

Dropping a $10 Gold Indian on a hard tile floor. They dent easily.

roadrunner · November 18, 2007 6:58AM

The $160 so called dollar bought two weeks ago Monday on ebay that hasn't arrived and haven't heard a word from the AH.

I hear you. I'm currently waiting out a $2000 coin that I sent a check on nearly 4 weeks ago. Have heard nothing and beginning to think I finally got my first ebay shaft job. At this point I'm gonna retire from ebay while I'm still up. If you play long enough, you will get smoked eventually. I so wish I could have voided this transaction. Anyone ever hear of Union City, GA......Savannah Scammer? Of course this is from a 100% FB ebayer with several years of history.

roadrunner

shylock · November 18, 2007 7:05AM

Not holding on to this exceptional 1894 MS66RD PCGS IH and consigning it to the Ally 2006 FUN sale.

Timing is everything.

Edited to add: I wish I had consigned it to the Ally 2006 FUN sale

Arizonadesertrat · November 18, 2007 7:14AM

Very nice coin---minty fresh.

ModernCrapNut · November 18, 2007 7:17AM

I had been out of the hobby for many years, but after retiring early this year my interest was rekindled. Then came a major mistake. Sadly I have to admit that I bought a set of ASE's in NGC MS 69 from Coin Vault. I like the looks of the coins since I had always liked walkers, but I certainly overpaid for them. Luckily for me, it wasn't long after that that I started researching things on the internet and found the forum here. Along with some other sources of info, I'm learring a lot more and a lot faster than if these sources weren't available

Fairlaneman · November 18, 2007 7:34AM

Multiple cases of slow, or no, "Trigger Finger" through the years. Some nice dimes have went bye bye never to be seen again.

Ken

RedTiger · November 18, 2007 7:53AM

A couple of mistakes come to mind:
1) Paying up for a rare date raw Seated dollar with problems about 10 years ago. It is a very tough coin to find, however, I paid way too much considering the problems. Current wholesale market value is perhaps 1/5 to 1/3 of what I paid, even with Seated coins moving up in value. Dealer I bought from paid to much to stock the coin, and I believe is now in some other line of work.

2) Buying a few 2005 Legacy Sets to flip and holding too long. After release, these popped as high as 80% over issue price in the month after issue, however, those high prices only held for a few days, and never returned. They trade for a wide range of prices, as low as 50% to 60% of issue price when folks dump them en masse at odd times on Ebay.

3) Paying up for a better date Morgan in circ about three years ago. Since that time the Morgan dollar market has weakened considerably and the coin might wholesale for about 65% of what I paid.

4) Choosing a nice DMPL common Morgan over some common junk silver when silver was $7 an ounce. The Morgan is down 10% or so, maybe -25% true wholesale, while silver has over doubled.

atom48coin · November 18, 2007 8:59AM

<< Like so many, losing my interest as I "matured" from childhood into adulthood. Those toys of my past (coin collections, baseball cards,etc) were no longer "necessary" as I became older. This, of course, was in the late 50's/early 60's. Oh yeah, I threw out my basbeball card collection from the same period. If God had given me another half brain during that "maturity" period I would have been a complete fool! >>

Same thing here!! Threw out all my baseball cards....

Now I've made the mistake of buying first spouse coins, thinking they'd appreciate. Hmmmm.

DenverDave · November 18, 2007 9:01AM

My worse is one of the best in a way or two...

Back in the 80's I did some work for a guy and the bill was 2K, he wanted to pay in GSA, CC Morgan's in there original packaging @ $25 each and I had first shot at picking over 100 of them he received when his father pass away as he was not a collector. I took 10 of them and the $1750 cash, put the GSA's in the safe and forgot about them as I was not real active in the hobby in those days...

Flash forward 20 years and surfing ebay, guess what I found...

My $250 investment turned into $5000 and I'm back in the hobby..."-)

1794half1839 · November 18, 2007 9:02AM

I bought an 1815 half dollar (an original AU in an XF45 holder) and sold it for choice money, but I still think it went too cheap.

MoneyLA · November 18, 2007 9:04AM

my single biggest numismatic blunder was getting married to "ex-wife #2" who destroyed my numismatic budget and holdings in one single court filing.

csanotes · November 18, 2007 9:05AM

When I first started collecting morgans and had a group of about 10 circulated ones all about f-vf I was selling them just for the silver value to buy something else. Included in the bunch was an 1895-O. Oh well!..live and learn. That was also before I bought any red book or the such. Buy the books first, learn all you can!

DennisH · November 18, 2007 9:17AM

Virtually all of my biggest blunders are not buying certain coins when I had the chance.

percyb · November 18, 2007 9:22AM

Biggest blunder was waiting to buy Key coins.

Meltdown · November 18, 2007 9:29AM

About 3 big blunders come to miind, Here's one of them... notice the price on the flip and the grade when I submitted it.

19Lyds · November 18, 2007 10:57AM

I sincerely regret not getting actively involved in Eisenhower Dollars while they were available!

Heck, I regret not getting actively involved in collecting until 4 or 5 years ago!

FullStrike · November 18, 2007 11:47AM

<< Eating Kellog's Frosted Flakes in 2000 instead of Cheerios...... >>

I bought about 20 boxes of Cheerios - just trying to get one of those Sackies. "All" I got for my troubles was Lincoln Cents - and a bunch of healthy Cheerios.

Soon after learning about the "wide AM " Lincolns - I peeled all the Lincolns off the "Certificates of Authenticity" and trashed the certs.

Now of course the Lincolns sell for $10 to $20 on eBay!

Of course I never found any of those "Wide AM's".

fishteeth · November 18, 2007 11:50AM

In 1999 I was just graduating from undergrad and had very little money.
Shortly after graduation I went to Cape Cod to visit some friends. One night my friend asks if I still collected coins. He then informed me that he had just inherited a coin collection from his father. His father was in his 80's when he died and the acumulation had actually been put together by his grandfather from the mid 1800's to the early 1900's.

The collection came in two old boxes (one was an old cigar box) probably 2000+ coins. It was full of everything from 1700's-1800's Spanish, French and English, colonials, counterstamped spanish coins, large cents a few gold coins, various hard times tokens, a lot of 1850-1870 Canadian Copper and silver and other misc items. BAsically anything wierd that would have been found floating around Welfleet, MA in the 1800's. I spent 2 nights going through the accumulation, best week ever in the Cape. I had no referrence material with me and at the time I was mainly collecting widgets, I knew I was dealing with 1000's of dollars of material though. I wanted the set but knew I could not afford it, I was getting ready to go to grad school. THis was a set I wanted to keep in tact as I felt it had more history as a group.

Believing I was being smart I asked my friends to hold the collection until I got out of grad school. Money is not an object for these people and they gladly agreed. In fact, they gave me a Fugio cent that was in the accumulation for helping them determine what they had.

Five years later, fresh out of grad school and once again in the Cape. My friends brought up the set, I still didn't have the money and they said they would gladly hold it for a few more years. They did, however, insist that I take 2 1907 ten dollar Indians as a present. One of those ended up graded PCGSMS64.

Fast forward to this past summer. Finally had the money. Guess what their son had become addicted to heroin and cleaned out their house. He took scrimshaw whale teeth, antiques from the 1700's and of course the 2 boxes of coins. They sent him to rehab and never pressed charges becuase it was their kid and a great numusmatic treasure was lost. I should have streched for the set right away

Here is the fugio cent I did get.

kryptonitecomics · November 18, 2007 11:59AM

Getting married.......cost me my collection

mozeppa · November 18, 2007 12:03PM

not buying a pcgs 66 red ....1909 vdb matte proof 6 years ago for ...........$ 2000

EagleEye · November 18, 2007 12:15PM

not buying a pcgs 66 red ....1909 vdb matte proof 6 years ago for ...........$ 2000

One was available back then, but I think the price was $20,000. As I recall. (or was it a 65RD?)

My biggest blunder was not buying a 1850 Baldwin "Vaquero" $10 MS-63 for $80K in 2000.

MrScience · November 18, 2007 12:33PM

When I was a YN, I was somehow dissatisfied with the look of my perfectly problem-free, steel-gray EF 1853 Arrows & Rays Seated Quarter. I took an eraser to it and it is no longer problem-free. I still have the coin, keeping it in part as a reminder:

rec78 · November 18, 2007 1:17PM

My six major blunders were:
1. selling my 187- Bust half (the counterfiet) for $60 about 30 years ago. Hay it was a counterfeit!.. I dont know what this coin would be worth today but i am sure it is a considerable sum.

2. selling my 1802 half cent. This is one of the nicest 1802 half cents you could ever hope for with a full reverse strike (rare find on an 1802) I wasnt collecting 1/2 cents back then but i am now and i know i will not replace that coin for 5x the money i sold it for. I collect half cents now and still need an 1802 and may eventually have to settle for a lower grade and coin not nearly as nice.
3. selling my 1864 new brunswick half cent R&b unc.
4. selling my 1864 Small motto two cent piece also R&B unc.
5. not buying a vf30 1842-O small date seated quarter when one was available at a very reasonable price.
6. not buying a vf35 1849-O seated quarter when one was available for a very reasonable cost.

AUandAG · November 18, 2007 1:27PM

In '64 I bought a car for $900. The day before I had the opportunity to buy a $1000 bag of 1888-O
morgans. Thought I had to have a car!! I was just 18, what did I know? I'm sure I'll get that
opportunity again is what I actually thought! Oh, Oh my!

bob

fastrudy · November 18, 2007 1:28PM

IT WAS 1955, my aunt gave me a shiney, new penny for the gumball machine. I now know it was a 1955 DDO. I stated that the printing looked 'funny' and she assured me it would work in the gumball machine.......it did.......and I didn't even get a red one!

AUandAG · November 18, 2007 1:35PM

<< When I was a YN, I was somehow dissatisfied with the look of my perfectly problem-free, steel-gray EF 1853 Arrows & Rays Seated Quarter. I took an eraser to it and it is no longer problem-free. I still have the coin, keeping it in part as a reminder:

>>

I believe you have an 1853 over 1854....at least that's what I see!
bob

MrScience · November 18, 2007 3:00PM

<>

Bob, thanks for the heads-up! I see a 'growth' on the upper loop of the 3 that I could interpret as the tip of a 4, and I also think I see the vestiges of a crossbar of the 4 and some doubling of the right arrow. I'll try to take some closeup pictures when I get a chance....

ipmman · November 18, 2007 3:09PM

Sold an AU Libertas Americana Bronze medal on eBay for $900 about 8 years ago.

Wolf359 · November 19, 2007 4:00AM

Noticing an apparent 1901-O Micro O Morgan on eBay several years ago. It was impossible, because this coin doesn't exist. Anyway, I made up my mind to bid, tracked the coin for several days, then managed to forget about it until about 15 minutes after the auction ended.

Of course last year, big news was made when the variety was confirmed. The discovery
could have been mine.

That auction is why I now use sniping software.

keets · November 19, 2007 4:33AM

being away from the hobby for 20 years. if i'd have dedicated myself to it in the late 70's i would be living on Easy Street, USA right now.

What numismatic blunder do you regret?

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