I attended another local auction today but was floored at that I saw and what I heard. Here is just a portion of what was for sale: 537 Silver Canada Dollar Coins 12140 silver Roosevelt/Mercury Dimes 3000 Washington Quarters 40 Franklin Half Dollars 3000 clad Eisenhower Dollars plus many other things such as Prestige Sets, Proof Sets, Silver Proof Sets, Premiere Silver Proof Sets and much more. If I totaled this up right, this was nearly 1756 total ounces of silver ($34,500+ right now). However, the story that I heard about these coins was even more amazing. According to the auctioneers, the guy died and left his entire estate to the county fairgrounds. As they searched through the house to make inventory for the auction, they initially found A LOT MORE silver. They didn't know what to do with it so because SilverTowne (Winchester, IN) was only 30 minutes away, they decided to sell it to them. When the fairground trustees walked away from SilverTowne, they had received nearly $240,000 from the silver coins. Then, when they went back into the house to sort inventory of the remaining items for the auction, they came across 10 different safes in the house that contained the stated coins above. They decided to sell it at the auction to hopefully get more money than what SilverTowne paid. This guy had over $250,000 worth of silver US/Canada coins in his house. They found coins in closets, the attic, secret chambers/passageways, under floorboards and they even found stashes of silver coins buried under the ground in his crawlspace. I was absolutely amazed. Although I don't have crazy deep pockets like others that were there (one guy bought at least 2000 silver quarters), I was able to purchase 34 rolls of silver Roosevelt dimes, 4 rolls of Mercury Dimes, 2 Rolls of Franklin Halves and some other various things including a box of 24 different Redbooks (years range from 1964-2005). Everything was selling for under melt except for the Canada Silver Dollars. I think people thought they contained the same amount as a Morgan/Peace. Lots of people got great deals on coins today. It was a day that I'll never forget.
What a wonderful story. What a generous man to give his entire estate to the county his lived. He must have loved it there. I respect that man for what he has done. He has also given me some good ideas for hiding my own stash It is stories like these that make me proud to deal with coins.
Well that is the thing when you are a hoarder of silver, gold etc - you just cannot leave it lying around in the open. You have to stash it where it is not so easily accessible.
They had an auction preview the previous day. My biggest fear was that someone would break into the place and steal it all. Not sure how much they made but with the sale of the coins , the sale of his house, the sale of two cars and everything else, I believe the fairgrounds came out pretty well.
He wrote the book on Redbooks, literally. For some reason there was one more Redbook over in another box not with all the others. (No other coin books in the sale.) I went and looked at the sale. People had told me that he had "tons" of coins. I went looked, yep, all junk silver except the Ikes, 3000 mostly Bicentennial clad Ikes. Did appear to be uncs though. (the Canadian dollars all appeared to be unc 1966's) My opinion was they should have dumped all the rest at Silvertowne too. Since you say that it was going below melt it sounds like I was right. I didn't bother to stick around for the auction. (Can't help be wonder if there was anything better in the stuff they DID dump at Silvertowne.)
Or, he hated his family......... Which was probably not the case. He probably was all alone in the world.
He was 97 when he died. His wife died in 2002 and they had no children. He had some nieces and nephews but left them nothing. He lived just a few blocks from the fairgrounds, which he must have loved. Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk
Cool story. - I have many clients that I have sold bags and bags of silver to. Some hide it out in the open, like in coffee tables, etc. some bury it. One client has her stuff stored in an old bomb shelter from the cold war. I love hearing stories like this.
