I didn't take a photo,because I sold it about 3 days or so later, & I was banned from CT at the time, or else I would of posted a grading thread in the world coin forum (scouts honor) Edit: and consequently,being banned MIGHT have made me lose $$$ on the coin because it could've been an XF Edit#2- since your calling people's bluffs ,you must've caught my fish story reference in my 1st post.
A bit coin related on Ebay one time via Mass State treasury auctions they were selling off an almost full capital holder of Lincoln wheat cents (1934-1958) and another holder with Washington quarters. The quarter holder only had 3/4 random quarters in it but it had two gold medals that I knew were 14K gold as I owned one of them already. Fortunately for me no one else must have figured out the medals were actually gold and I won the lot for like $67 shipped if I remember correctly. The medals weighed around 3.5 grams each so I made out pretty well.
Some interesting stories. Mine is basically back around 2000 I decided to branch from my moderns to something different. About my first 2 purchases were a 1797 S-131 large cent and an 1875 DDO shield nickel. So that lead to some books - specifically the Cherry Pickers Guide and I learned about the missing leaf variety. I searched for years on ebay and other sites before I finally found one. The first one was on teletrade - the bid shot out of this world(in my opinion) for a VF example. Then it was boom - I found 2 on ebay(less than $10) low grade examples, then another on a dealers site(HJB) the 1867 below. So I have 4 now in the last couple of years. I did find one on heritage - a high grade example at MS64 (https://coins.ha.com/itm/shield-nic...1617-27063.s?ic4=GalleryView-Thumbnail-071515) - but it sky rocketed also. And I continue the search - I want to cherry pick several varieties(not just shield nickels) since I don't want to pay the premiums.
This is how the cherry pickers guide paid for itself - This auction https://coins.ha.com/itm/indian-cen...8062-22086.s?ic4=GalleryView-Thumbnail-071515 I won - the coin sold about 1 month later for $1500. You can probably find a thread or 2 about it on coin talk.
I found one of these cuds while roll searching in 1969 or 1970. My local coin dealer offered me $8 for it. That offer was basically 80,000 % profit. I kept the coin & now own about a dozen examples of the cud. It is the coin that got me interested in collecting error coins. It is cataloged as LC-69S-04. This particular photo depicts one I purchased in 2008. That was also the year I stopped lurking at CT and finally began contributing & enjoying the site. (Joining the CT site is another success story). FWIW I purchased another one of these cud coins a few days ago. It has not yet arrived in the mail.
@mark_h: Those are nice collectible grade missing leaf shield nickels. Missing leaf coins are notoriously hard to attribute unless you can find a die marker, but I gave it a try. It's hard to see die markers in your photos. I narrowed down your 1866 to one of two: F-24 (S1-6004) or F-25 (S1-6001). The numbers are from (respectively) Fletcher and SNV. If I had the coin in hand, I might be able to figure out which one it is by looking at it under a scope. I am leaning towards F-25. If that is the correct attribution, I would be interested in photographing your coin for inclusion in SNV, as it is higher grade than my current example. Or if you are skilled with coin photography, I could send you directions to take your own photos. I think I was able to narrow down the 1867 to one of two as well: F-64 (S2-6000) or S2-6006 (no F number). If the latter attribution is correct, then this coin would also be an upgrade photo for SNV. BTW, you can read about SNV here: http://www.shieldnickels.net/snv/snv.html If you haven't visited my website, it may interest you: http://www.shieldnickels.net Totally free, no registration required. Lots of shield nickel information.
The last surprise I got in change was a few years ago when I got a dateless 1913-S Type I Buffalo nickel at a supermarket.
It was virtually the entire collection (60 coins in all), which included a very poor 1877 as well as many less than stellar examples from the 60's and 70's. It didn't include the 08 and 09 S's. The 77 had damage to the obverse and some of the 60's and 70's cents were AG3 at best. It did include a few coins up to F12 and some nice G4 examples of flying eagles from 57 and 58. In my estimation , it added about $800 to the value of my collection for $60. Not bad for a few hours at an auction. On the same day and at the same auction, I was also able to purchase 156 early wheat cents that included many early key dates including the 09-S, 10-S, 11-S, 12-S, 31-S, etc. I bought that collection for $65 and currently value that haul at over $500.
I bought an 1891CC XF45 half eagle in an ICG holder for about $500 - back when gold was pretty high. Cracked it and sent it to NGC. It came back AU58. Tripled my money when I sold it a few years later. Wish I could do that once a month! Hah!