Success Stories In Coin Collecting

The purpose of this thread is to share your Success Stories in collecting. Your post can be about a Key Date coin, a rare variety , or error coin.
This thread will also give others hope ,and the drive to continue the hunt,and drive for the passion they have in this hobby. Images would be great but since some of us have been collecting for decades that may not be possible .
So let's here those stories and post some images to spark others In their hunt for that special specimen in their collection .

 

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One story I like to share is one of the 1955 Lincoln cent.
Roll searching for a 55 ddo I found 5 ! Not the legendary 1955/1955 the FS-01-1955-101 but the FS-01-1955-102.
This variety has a URS of -6
I sent all 5 into NGC and they came back as 2 ms-64 red 2 ms-65 red and 1 ms-64 brown.
Now not being a collector of Lincoln cents I sold all 5 of them. Now I wish I had of held onto at least one of them.
But they all sold for" good money ",and it was used to buy other specimens for my collection .
I did have images but they were lost in transferring data between computers.

 

Can't get my pic to post correctly so I'll have to get back to my desktop to post my story.

 

I had a 1909 S VDB Lincoln cent had it for years. I send it off to PCGS came back VF cleaned. Well I kept it for a while, then I sold it and was able to buy a VF25 straight grade for the money I got for the cleaned one.

 

I had a similar transaction to @PennyGuy - There was a rubber token for sale on Great Collections with a dual pedigree (George Fuld and Steve Tanenbaum) and really neat content (the token was for an asbestos dealer). I liked the piece, and really liked the chain of ownership, but I missed out on the auction. It ended up selling for $110 +/- and I thought to myself, "man, I'd have paid nearly three times that much."

I found the same token on eBay about six months later and it was listed for $300ish. I made an offer of $200 and basically said I was watching the token on GC and would have paid more than the winning bid - if the seller wanted to make a quick sale, I'd be a buyer. The seller accepted.

 

Successes? Maybe A few. Nothing major or notable to discuss here. If I had to look at the big picture, I would say finding CT.

 

My biggest success was the purchase of a nearly complete Indian Head penny collection for $60 at a local auction. While I was inspecting coins during the pre-auction review, I saw this collection. As I didn't bring my checkbook, I went to a local ATM and withdrew $400. As I already was carrying $500, I thought that $900 ought to be enough. Imagine my surprise that no one was bidding on the collection until it got down to $25. I started bidding against one other guy who gave up at $60. I had bought many coins at this auction in the past including a Swiss 2 Franc 1901-B for $2. Unfortunately, other coin collectors started to attend the auction and prices moved toward market value. Until that inevitable date, it did give me a weekly shot of adrenaline for about six months in 2007. Each week provided a new surprise.

 

That explains a previous post of yours which rather shocked me at the time.

I cannot look to any specific coin or purchase to define my "greatest success" in the hobby, although there are a few which might qualify. Rather, it's been more in finding ways to express my overwhelming interest in the hobby - hell, let's call it the obsession that it is - without basing it on specific coins or collections thereof. For me, it's all about the knowledge anyway; I'm as giggly learning something new about an Ike Dollar as I am a Morgan or a Half Dime. On my terms, my greatest success has come from forcing myself to learn an incredible amount of things by interacting online with those who know more about those things than I do, and more importantly by answering the questions of those who know less than I do (or less than I appeared to know at the time).

Dirty secret: nobody learns more than the teacher. The process of going out and finding the information required to offer a coherent response to someone else's question is enormously rewarding on a personal level. It's shown me a number of new numismatic subspecialties I now really enjoy, and didn't know about until someone else forced me to look at it by asking a question.

My greatest success? I can't be happy with the guy in the mirror unless I'm learning and teaching, and I can do both here and at other places like this. It's far more satisfying than any single coin.

 

You are on the road to Mastery!

 

I know I have posted this coin before ,however there's a story that goes along with the image. It was September 3 years ago. I was at the First Gettysburg Battle Field Coin Show.Walking the floor I spotted this coin in a dealers case. I asked to see it as it was so eye catching laying there. I asked for a price and the dealer said $40. I couldn't get my hand into my pocket fast enough. After the purchase I walked over to Alan's table Alan aka Coinzip . I showed him the coin, he had one of his scopes set up and then we found the MPD's in the denticles.
Alan looked at me reached into his pocket and started to hand me a $100 bill. " now go find me one just like this one" he said.
A double win here a beautiful toned coin with misplaced dates in the denticles.....$40

 

Just don't lose track of the certainty that the road has no end.

 

Last year (or early this year), I purchased 5 counterfeit Morgans off ebay, knowing they were fake. 1878-Os....New Orleans didn't start minting them until 1879.

I easily got my money back and they are out of the marketplace. We all won on that one.

 

How many times have you found a Mint Error and wondered what the range of grades was for certified specimens? Unfortunately, you will never know since Mint Errors are not included in the census because there are just too many possibilities for classifying them. That is what I expected when I found a Mint Error in a proof set.

In 2005, I ordered four sets of the 10-piece Silver Proof Set. Two of them were for me and two of them were for a friend who did not have a computer to access the Mint's online services. When they finally arrived, I noticed that two of the sets had the Kansas State Quarter with a die gouge on the butt of the buffalo. (Note: These first images were taken with the coins still in the Mint case, and all the marks you see are from the cardboard dust and blemishes on the plastic.)





So, I gave one of these error sets to my friend, and I kept one to submit to NGC for grading. You don't know how happy I was when this coin came back PF70UCAM because it was just hit-or-miss on my part not knowing if some of the marks were on the coin or the case.



Naturally, I had no way of knowing how many of these errors existed, but I did know that another collector claimed that he received ten of these sets from the Mint and he was giving some of them to family members as gifts (Source: Coin World). So, I knew there could be at least twelve specimens, and I'd just have to wait and see if any others surfaced.

Of course, this did involve some risk-taking because usually the first ones offered for sale often sell for more than subsequent specimens. Well, several years went by and no new specimens were found nor were any listed for sale. Then in 2012, the Cherrypickers Guide, 5th Edition, Volume II was released. I was surprised to learn that the Kansas proof quarter was added as a variety, FS-901, and I immediately resubmitted it to NGC for the attribution. This meant that the coin would now be listed in the NGC Census. As it turned out, the NGC Census listed three specimens, but mine was the only one at PF70UCAM.

Hooray! This was the first "Top Pop" coin I had ever owned, and it was doubly sweet because I discovered it. I continued to bask in glory for about six weeks when I was contacted by a collector's agent in California. He offered me $1,000 for it. Obviously, I accepted because you never know (where modern proof coins are concerned) when another PF70UCAM might come along "to share the throne".

Chris

 

It is interesting to read the many posts, how many have obtained coins. I have been collecting Lincoln Wheat Pennies for well over 50 years and have gone through thousands of penny rolls. Unfortunately have never found the penny that has had the high value. I do however, when finding a wheat penny still get the same adrenalin flow.

 

OK made it back home from the Huron Valley Numismatic Society Fall coin show. Didn't find much but picked up a 1847 1 Skilling for my Swedish type set.

Now back to our previously scheduled program.....
Several years ago I noticed a Rarity-10 CWT store card at Heritage. It was in a Details holder as improperly cleaned, but I didn't care it is the only one known. Somehow I missed the end of the auction, just plain forgot. It sold for $160. Could of kicked myself.

A month later the same store card turns up on eBay, for something like $1,600 BIN with a 30 day listing, and no Best Offer. The next month it was renewed. And again and again for a year and a half. Each month I would update my Saved list. Then it was listed with an opening bid of $191 or a $1,200 BIN. I placed a bid I thought would deter the bottom feeders and waited. Low and behold I won it at the opening bid.

I collect store cards from the 4 Jackson County, Michigan merchants that used them so I am especially glad to get this one.

Here it is....

 

One that I can recall easily was walking into a "we buy gold and silver" shop back when there seemed to be one on every street corner. The owner had a few scattered silver coins on display that he was selling. In the case was this 2001 Buffalo commemorative set priced at $180. I told the dealer that I wanted to buy it but only had $100 with me. I asked him if he would hold it and the $100 until I could go the the bank and get the rest. He agreed. I quickly drove to my bank's ATM and returned with the balance.

 

Good one

 

I cherry picked a 1909 S Indian Head that was around XF-AU for $30. It had some corrosion on it so I sold it for $380 and used the cash to buy my first gold coin. An Indian $2.50 and still have money left over which I then invested in another gold indian. Which I sold this week (made a few bucks) and used that to buy the coin in my profile pic. A nice proof aussie half penny.

 

Stealer.........

 

Success story: I have searched out coins I've wanted and, whether or not they are worth money or whether or not they were a good deal, I have thoroughly enjoyed them.