A few years ago I found a Philippine-American raw brown one centavo 1918-S large "S"in a dealers notebook of world coins. He wanted $90 for it. I asked for a discount and he said $30. I could not get my money out fast enough. PCGS slabbed it MS65. PCGS and NGC combined pop3/0 in 65. It cats at $3750. That was a fun day!
<< <i>Well, a bit costly up front, but I took a risk and got an 1841 GB half sov. from the 'bay @ 1125 USD that encapsulated as a gem in NGC 65 (and possibly undergraded at that!). A risky move but paid off - take care in these kind of buys. >>
So, that was you? I saw that one and the pics looked promising, but if I'd bought that sucker, it would have BB'd.
Well, I did buy a wonderful 1853 gem farthing which turned out to be an 1853/2, and then I happened across a nice RB gem 1858 penny which has a 3 under the 8.
I'm not exactly proud of this story. Undoubtedly my rock bottom in all my years as a collector.
A few years ago, my coin parcels were delivered by a very nosey postman who very soon found out about my interest in coins and collectables. In 2002, the drachma switched to the euro and people had about 3 months to bring their drachmas to the bank and exchange them for euros at a fixed rate. My nosey postman was also delivering letters and pension checks to an elderly widow living somewhere nearby, and he was given the task to take a bunch of her old banknotes to the bank and exchange them for euros at face value.
Now the postman decided to bring the banknotes to me first. There were about a hundred notes in that lot, all of which crisp unc, with a total retail value of about eight to ten thousand euros, as they were all from the 1950s, with a very small face value, I think total face value would have resulted in an exchange of about 160-170 euros. I paid the postman 1500 euros on the spot, and resold the lot the same day to a dealer for around 4500 euros. As if that wasn't greedy enough, I had kept one note from each type in order to jumpstart my new banknote collection. I've sold those ones too a couple of months later for full retail and an additional 800 euros I think.I never learned how much the postman paid the old lady from his cut, nor did I ever learn her name or address. In fact, my only choice in the matter was to either decide to play along with the postman, or tell him to go sell them himself, which at the time sounded as a pretty big waste to my ears.
The dealer who bought them made a killing by selling them slowly over a period of 6-8 months. One note in particular, of which we had 8 specimens, was not only worth 250 euros a piece in full retail, it was also an impossible note to locate in such fantastic condition. To this day, I believe that it was the finest banknote lot to appear in the past decade in the local market and very few people know where it had originated from, unless they read this post today.
If this had taken place today, I would have told him to sell them elsewhere, it wasn't worth the guilt and the bad karma. The only good news was that the nosey postman, (who was consistently opening all my parcels before delivering them to me!) was soon transferred and I never heard from him again. His transfer was totally unrelated to this story.
Tough situation to have been in Dimitri. No way to ever know if whatever amount of money you were to give to the postman for the currency if any amount over face value would have ever made its way back to the widow.
R.I.P. Wayne, Brad Collecting: Conder tokens 19th & 20th Century coins from Great Britain and the Realm
<< <i>Tough situation to have been in Dimitri. No way to ever know if whatever amount of money you were to give to the postman for the currency if any amount over face value would have ever made its way back to the widow. >>
David, thank you for your supportive post.
It feels good to have shared it here. The only positive that came out of this story was a severe wake up call to my then fading moral principles.
Every once in a while these 50mm world map medals in white metal come up for sale. There's some mystery regarding the engraver/issuer but they usually are described as "c. 1820 Halliday?". The example below sold this year in a Noble Numismatics (Australia) auction for roughly $550 but the wear, marks and corrosion kept me away. Nice examples have brought quite a bit more than that.
So I was pleased to pick up the following example on Ebay, actually outbidding someone, to arrive at a purchase price of ..............................................................................................................................................................$10.60.
I paid 25¢ for this coin in the mid 1960's from a dealers "junk" bin.
I sold it on Ebay to a French collector in 2005 for $72.
France 1829-BB Half Franc Silver Coin Strasbourg Mint (BB) King Charles X Condition: Good Diameter: 17mm Charles X Roi De France Obverse has a scratch near Charles' mouth Reverse has small scratches
In the mid '80s, I bought a box of a dozen or so world mint & proof sets for $4 each. It was one of my earliest bulk buys, and no small investment for a poor college student.
When I got back to my dorm room and started looking through my treasures, I discovered that one of the sets was a 1969 Japanese Mint Set in absolutely pristine condition! I hung on to it for as long as I could stand, then sold it to Kent Froseth for $450!!!
That silly little set, vinyl folder and all, hooked me for good!
Comments
A few years ago I found a Philippine-American raw brown one centavo 1918-S large "S"in a dealers notebook of world coins. He wanted $90 for it. I asked for a discount and he said $30. I could not get my money out fast enough. PCGS slabbed it MS65. PCGS and NGC combined pop3/0 in 65. It cats at $3750. That was a fun day!
Krueger
<< <i>Well, a bit costly up front, but I took a risk and got an 1841 GB half sov. from the 'bay @ 1125 USD that encapsulated as a gem in NGC 65 (and possibly undergraded at that!). A risky move but paid off - take care in these kind of buys. >>
Congrats!!
Well, just Love coins, period.
A few years ago, my coin parcels were delivered by a very nosey postman who very soon found out about my interest in coins and collectables. In 2002, the drachma switched to the euro and people had about 3 months to bring their drachmas to the bank and exchange them for euros at a fixed rate. My nosey postman was also delivering letters and pension checks to an elderly widow living somewhere nearby, and he was given the task to take a bunch of her old banknotes to the bank and exchange them for euros at face value.
Now the postman decided to bring the banknotes to me first. There were about a hundred notes in that lot, all of which crisp unc, with a total retail value of about eight to ten thousand euros, as they were all from the 1950s, with a very small face value, I think total face value would have resulted in an exchange of about 160-170 euros. I paid the postman 1500 euros on the spot, and resold the lot the same day to a dealer for around 4500 euros. As if that wasn't greedy enough, I had kept one note from each type in order to jumpstart my new banknote collection. I've sold those ones too a couple of months later for full retail and an additional 800 euros I think.I never learned how much the postman paid the old lady from his cut, nor did I ever learn her name or address. In fact, my only choice in the matter was to either decide to play along with the postman, or tell him to go sell them himself, which at the time sounded as a pretty big waste to my ears.
The dealer who bought them made a killing by selling them slowly over a period of 6-8 months. One note in particular, of which we had 8 specimens, was not only worth 250 euros a piece in full retail, it was also an impossible note to locate in such fantastic condition. To this day, I believe that it was the finest banknote lot to appear in the past decade in the local market and very few people know where it had originated from, unless they read this post today.
If this had taken place today, I would have told him to sell them elsewhere, it wasn't worth the guilt and the bad karma. The only good news was that the nosey postman, (who was consistently opening all my parcels before delivering them to me!) was soon transferred and I never heard from him again. His transfer was totally unrelated to this story.
myEbay
DPOTD 3
Collecting:
Conder tokens
19th & 20th Century coins from Great Britain and the Realm
<< <i>Tough situation to have been in Dimitri. No way to ever know if whatever amount of money you were to give to the postman for the currency if any amount over face value would have ever made its way back to the widow. >>
David, thank you for your supportive post.
It feels good to have shared it here. The only positive that came out of this story was a severe wake up call to my then fading moral principles.
myEbay
DPOTD 3
Every once in a while these 50mm world map medals in white metal come up for sale. There's some mystery
regarding the engraver/issuer but they usually are described as "c. 1820 Halliday?". The example below sold
this year in a Noble Numismatics (Australia) auction for roughly $550 but the wear, marks and corrosion kept me
away. Nice examples have brought quite a bit more than that.
So I was pleased to pick up the following example on Ebay, actually outbidding someone, to arrive at a purchase price
of ..............................................................................................................................................................$10.60.
Conder Token Gallery https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipMCiunai6NjOxoo3zREkCsAnNm4vONzieO3u7tHyhm8peZmRD_A0MXmnWT2dzJ-nw?key=Rlo2YklUSWtEY1NWc3BfVm90ZEUwU25jLUZueG9n
DPOTD-3
'Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery'
CU #3245 B.N.A. #428
Don
I paid 25¢ for this coin in the mid 1960's from a dealers "junk" bin.
I sold it on Ebay to a French collector in 2005 for $72.
France 1829-BB Half Franc Silver Coin
Strasbourg Mint (BB)
King Charles X
Condition: Good
Diameter: 17mm
Charles X Roi De France
Obverse has a scratch near Charles' mouth
Reverse has small scratches
The Mysterious Egyptian Magic Coin
Coins in Movies
Coins on Television
In the mid '80s, I bought a box of a dozen or so world mint & proof sets for $4 each. It was one of my earliest bulk buys, and no small investment for a poor college student.
When I got back to my dorm room and started looking through my treasures, I discovered that one of the sets was a 1969 Japanese Mint Set in absolutely pristine condition! I hung on to it for as long as I could stand, then sold it to Kent Froseth for $450!!!
That silly little set, vinyl folder and all, hooked me for good!