Since PCGS won't play, tell us some of YOUR coin horror stories.

UtahCoin · October 15, 2008 10:00PM

Reading a day or two ago about SaintGuru dropping a rare Saint can certainly twist your stomach in a knot. What experience have you had that twisted your stomach into a knot?

I go to great pains to not draw attention to myself or my coin business online and through the mail. In spite of that, situations occur that just burn holes in my stomach. A couple of years ago, a coin arrived at my house in a padded envelope that had written all over it, "HANDLE WITH CARE, RARE COIN ENCLOSED".

airplanenut · October 15, 2008 10:17PM

I don't know where to begin describing the accidental chain of events here... I accidentally:

-Bent it
-Put hole in it
-Carved my initials and date into it
-Reinforced some of the details
-Put it in a flame

I mean, it all just happened so fast!

MadMarty · October 15, 2008 10:17PM

Oops!! The only horror story I have involves a ruibber chicken.... Best not to tell!!!

Connecticoin · October 15, 2008 10:22PM

When my dog was a puppy, she wandered into my office and chewed a raw PL 1897-O Morgan I paid $80 for. Put a nice toothmark in it, and it promptly went to the junk silver pile.

pmac · October 15, 2008 10:31PM

<< I don't know where to begin describing the accidental chain of events here... I accidentally:

-Bent it
-Put hole in it
-Carved my initials and date into it
-Reinforced some of the details
-Put it in a flame

I mean, it all just happened so fast!

<< 

Somebody must have pissed you off. ANACS will grade anything without PVC on it.

pmac · October 15, 2008 10:33PM

I put a bid in where I added 15% instead of subtracting 15% of the level I wanted to be.

ziggy29 · October 15, 2008 10:33PM

<< Somebody must have pissed you off. ANACS will grade anything without PVC on it. >>

That is pretty funny. This coin gets slabbed, and an otherwise very nice coin with a trace of PVC gets bagged.

guitarwes · October 15, 2008 11:57PM

I received several expensive coins in a bubble mailer once that the end was ripped off. When I pullled it out of my Po Box and saw it, my heart did a flutter flip. I opened it (well, looked inside of it since it was already open) if front of the Postal employee and everything that was supposed to be inside was there, by the grace of God. How, Why, When did this happen????....I have no idea.

Another time, received an envelope with a BU Indian Head cent in it. When I opened the envelope, I saw the Indian Cent TAPED to the piece of paper that was in it. Yes, you could imagine what I thought. Upon further examination when I pulled it off the paper, it was in a kointain........whew, another close one.

-wes

NHSBaseball · October 16, 2008 12:03AM

I sold a bunch of coins to buy an AU 1837 sm.5c. Half Dime from Rich Uhrich- which fell out of my pocket at the doctor's office while getting a shot in the posterior. I didn't notice it was missing until I got home. I called all the local shops to tell them to be on the lookout for the coin as I would buy it back or reward whoever found it, but no luck.

That day bit.

newbiecollector · October 16, 2008 12:08AM

The Story

Once upon a time I bought a raw coin on ebay

I paid for the coin

I EVENTUALLY received the coin

The coin was not as nice as I expected..........

(I will skip the next 234 instances in this story because it would be too much to copy paste so many times)

The End

Barndog · October 16, 2008 12:18AM

<< I sold a bunch of coins to buy an AU 1837 sm.5c. Half Dime from Rich Uhrich- which fell out of my pocket at the doctor's office while getting a shot in the posterior. I didn't notice it was missing until I got home. I called all the local shops to tell them to be on the lookout for the coin as I would buy it back or reward whoever found it, but no luck.

That day bit. >>

that totally sucks

MadMarty · October 16, 2008 12:27AM

Back in the my Morgan Newbie days, and the newbie days of E-Bay, long before I became a member here! (1998) I bought a 1893-S Morgan in AU53 holdered off E-Bay! I figured it was a XF and paid XF40 money! The kicker is, it was in an ACCUGRADE holder! At the time I didn't know any better. A few years later I cracked it out and submitted it to PCGS. Graded XF45! For a month, I was in a constant state of worry that my 93-S would get a dreaded BODYBAG!!!

DNADave · October 16, 2008 1:05AM

Here's a lesson I learned the hard way.

I had a pretty decent capped die Lincoln cent once and I took it to a well known coin dealer here in Charleston to show it off. He had a lot of nice and pricey cool-aid so I figured he knew his stuff. So he asks if he can take the coin out of the stapled 2x2 and I said sure. Next thing I know the guy is rubbing his thumb on my coin and of course, he had put a nice big staple scratch on my coin. I was so surprised I didn't say anything at the time and just grumble about it now on coin forums.

1. Never assume a dealer knows what he is doing based on his inventory.
2. Never let someone else remove your coin from its holder.
3. Never open a stapled 2x2 by pulling it apart. Always remove coins from stapled 2x2's by breaking the plastic window with a tookpick....the coin will come right out, or perhaps by removing the stapes altogether
4. Go ahead and speak up if you're unhappy with the way someone is handling your coin.

adamlaneus · October 16, 2008 1:15AM

Slung over my shoulder, I had a camera. In one hand, I had a stack of 4 PCGS slabs. I was walking out to the back to do some photography.

As I was walking, I was also looking through the slabs. They were all very new and scratch free.

What I did not know is that a large, sharp grain of sand had gotten in between two of the slabs.

And then it happened. One slab slid against the other, using this sharp silica tidbit as a 'bad roller bearing'.

I felt every little chip of plastic get gouged out of both slabs as they slid on each other. The grain of sand made sure that this was no simple scratch, but had all sorts of side-chips along the entire length of the gouge.

Eventually, I cracked the coins out of those slabs entirely. It's not like these coins were so special that the PCGS plastic made them more valuable.

The feeling and sound of that gouge being made was horrifying. I felt very stupid for letting that happen. My trips to the Utah desert cause this to happen. Sand everywhere.

VAMSKY · October 16, 2008 1:41AM

I was metal-detecting with a noob and he found what I could make out as a Merc, but the caked dirt prevented further identification. He showed me the coin a couple of days later after he had given it a simichrome treatment ... a very shiny 16-D that had XF/AU details.

braddick · October 16, 2008 2:27AM

I purchased a Colonial off a local bid-board for $22. and sold it about a year later to an enthusiast for $3,500 who quickly and subsequently sold it at auction for $33,000.00.

DNADave · October 16, 2008 3:34AM

<< I purchased a Colonial off a local bid-board for $22. and sold it about a year later to an enthusiast for $3,500 who quickly and subsequently sold it at auction for $33,000.00. >>

That may just be as bad as Lord M's Holey Half !

zeebob · October 16, 2008 3:42AM

Bought a 1867 BU Maximillion Peso for $400. PCGS BB'd it. NCS slabbed it a improperly cleaned AU-details.

Lesson - know what the hell you're looking at if you are buying a coin. Stupid shiny coin - no luster at all on it...

jessewvu · October 16, 2008 10:25AM

I am getting scammed out of $815 from an eBay buyer right now, as we speak.

… · October 16, 2008 11:36AM

While i was still working at my job, and i was still learning very much very quickly about VAMs, i was looking through a box of morgans and pulled out a 1902 O that had the craziest double ear i had ever seen. I looked it up, and couldnt find a match. My boss had it slabbed at ANACS, and it came back an MS 64 VAM 26. Later that month, my boss tells me to sell it, and we agree on a price of $75. I sold it at a show, to a dealer i knew who specializes in die varieties. Turns out, he sent it to Leroy Van Allen, got a discovery, had it reholdered as a VAM 54, sold the discovery piece for $1,000. It is now an INCREDIBLY rare piece, with two known. And i sold the discovery piece for $75. Greatest coin related regret of my life.

GoldenEyeNumismatics · October 16, 2008 11:40AM

I dented a near gem Barber half by accident. Lesson learned: always handle coins over a soft surface, especially when your chair has metal feet.

oxy8890 · October 16, 2008 12:07PM

<< 

<< I don't know where to begin describing the accidental chain of events here... I accidentally:

-Bent it
-Put hole in it
-Carved my initials and date into it
-Reinforced some of the details
-Put it in a flame

I mean, it all just happened so fast!

<< 
>>

This sounds like a drug dealer in front of a judge

eyoung429 · October 16, 2008 12:40PM

This was a close one for me....glad the coin didn't slip

BigE2 · October 16, 2008 12:49PM

When I was a kid, Dad would buy bags of wheat cents for us kids to sort by date and mint. Once when were ALMOST done sorting, eith about 4900 coins neatly stacked on the kitchen table, two of our cats were tear-assing thru the house. Inexplicably, ('cuz the cats had NEVER got on the tables before) the front-runner leapt onto the table full speed, landed smack on the coins and slid the width of the table, plowing pennies everywhere.
Didn't see the cats for a couple days. We found pennies in the floor register a few months later.

notwilight · October 16, 2008 1:23PM

<< I am getting scammed out of $815 from an eBay buyer right now, as we speak. >>

Don't you still have the coin?

WoodenJefferson · October 16, 2008 2:53PM

I was examining a raw brilliant uncirculated 1936-D Walking Liberty and I left it sitting next to the computer on a small index card that I was moving it around with. later that day, I was sitting in the lounge chair watching TV when my wife turned to me at the computer desk and was holding up my Walker! She calmly asked me where I wanted to put it?

I flew out of the chair but it was too late. She had grabbed the Walker between her thumb and index finger, flat on the devices…my heart sunk. I did not blame her, I blamed myself for leaving it sit out and not putting it back into the flip to protect as intended.

I looked at it under magnification, tilting and rolling and did not see any print, crossing my fingers but I bet her prints show up in a few years. It has such a lusterous surface I do not wish to dip, I’m going to take my chances.

Last time I do that for sure!

PerryHall · October 16, 2008 7:20PM

<< I was examining a raw brilliant uncirculated 1936-D Walking Liberty and I left it sitting next to the computer on a small index card that I was moving it around with. later that day, I was sitting in the lounge chair watching TV when my wife turned to me at the computer desk and was holding up my Walker! She calmly asked me where I wanted to put it?

I flew out of the chair but it was too late. She had grabbed the Walker between her thumb and index finger, flat on the devices…my heart sunk. I did not blame her, I blamed myself for leaving it sit out and not putting it back into the flip to protect as intended.

I looked at it under magnification, tilting and rolling and did not see any print, crossing my fingers but I bet her prints show up in a few years. It has such a lusterous surface I do not wish to dip, I’m going to take my chances.

Last time I do that for sure! >>

Acetone should remove any finger print oils without hurting the luster or toning.

DNADave · October 16, 2008 8:11PM

<< I dented a near gem Barber half by accident. Lesson learned: always handle coins over a soft surface, especially when your chair has metal feet. >>

Nothing makes the bourse go silent quicker than the sound of a coin hitting the floor at a big coin show.

curly · October 16, 2008 9:02PM

Back in the early 70s I took an uncirculated 1921 Peace Dollar to work to show to a co worker. The coin was in a flip and when I handed it to him he went ARRRRGH like a pirate. He then took the coin out of the flip and holding it by the surface he stuck it in his mouth and bit it!

Never again.

… · October 17, 2008 8:28AM

<< Back in the early 70s I took an uncirculated 1921 Peace Dollar to work to show to a co worker. The coin was in a flip and when I handed it to him he went ARRRRGH like a pirate. He then took the coin out of the flip and holding it by the surface he stuck it in his mouth and bit it!

Never again. >>

You cant be serious!?

CoinOnTheCob · October 17, 2008 9:12AM

<< I don't know where to begin describing the accidental chain of events here... I accidentally:

-Bent it
-Put hole in it
-Carved my initials and date into it
-Reinforced some of the details
-Put it in a flame

I mean, it all just happened so fast!

>>

I've always loved that slab.

SaorAlba · October 17, 2008 9:16AM

Back in the summer of 1999 I bought a 1670 Bristol Farthing from a seller in the UK. The day it arrived in the post was the day I found out my Mother was dying, and I vaguely remember opening the envelope and looking at the token. It was a very nice example of a common token, but not one found in great condition very often.

I am not sure from there what happened to it. I believe I probably put it back in the envelope it was mailed in, and accidentally thrown it out thinking that the token was put away and not in the envelope. Needless to say, I never found it.

Shamika · October 17, 2008 9:30AM

<< Back in the summer of 1999 I bought a 1670 Bristol Farthing from a seller in the UK. The day it arrived in the post was the day I found out my Mother was dying, and I vaguely remember opening the envelope and looking at the token. It was a very nice example of a common token, but not one found in great condition very often.

I am not sure from there what happened to it. I believe I probably put it back in the envelope it was mailed in, and accidentally thrown it out thinking that the token was put away and not in the envelope. Needless to say, I never found it. >>

Sorry to hear about that (your Mom, not the token).

Since PCGS won't play, tell us some of YOUR coin horror stories.

Comments

Leave a Comment