Hey coin talkers, I was out garage saling yesterday and stumbled upon a gentleman selling some coins. I talked with him for some time and came to find out he had owned a coin shop in town some years ago. As I was looking over his collection of about 250 pieces including Morgans, Peace dollars, commems, cents, large cents, etc, two pieces caught my eye. A 1914-D Lincoln and a 1909-S Indian. My heart started to pound and I got very excited. He had prices on both 2X2s. Both were a lot more than I had brought with me. I thanked him for his time and left the sale. I returned later with $750 cash, my loupe, and my PCGS book for counterfeit detection. I looked over both pieces very carefully and then offered him $700 cash for both. He was taken aback since he said the lowest he could go on the 1914 was $350 and $500 for the Indian. After some more talking and reminiscing he decided to let me have them for $750 but he said "this is the exact price I paid for them, but I don't mind doing that every once in a while." He was a great guy and I really enjoyed talking to him, but I like the two new cents I purchased more Thanks for reading. PS: Sorry the pics are not the best. My scanner is kind of old.
Nice buys! Nothing like the garage sales I go to! The seller would be a good person to stay in touch with. Who knows what he has in his personal stash.
i tried at a garage sale at an apartment building with all elderly people. i figured they may have some old coins. maybe a widow had a few coins from her late husband or something. but i had no luck. good job on the find. i too would try to stay in touch with the guy.
Wondering, has the 1909-S IHC ever been counterfeited? I'm not talking about recent Chinese knock off's, I mean real IHC manipulated/transformed into this key coin? (the 14-D's yes)
Thank you everyone. I will stay in touch with him. He has some good connections. Both coins are pretty highly counterfeited. The 1909-s more so than the 1914-D according to my local coin dealer (I'm not sure if they are manipulated or knock offs though). I had two of my local coin shop guys examine them. Both have many years of knowledge in coins and they both say that they have no reason to believe they are fakes. Once I get some more coins I would like to get graded I will send these in to either NGC or PCGS.
No offence, but I'm still trying to get my head around the idea that you can go to a GARAGE or YARD sale and see a 1909-S, etc. Yeah, sure. I've got that key date I've been dying to get rid of. HEY!!!! Aunt Sallie is having a GARAGE sale this weekend, I'll put it up there. I'll sit in a lawn chair and scratch myself while I wait for buyers! Everything sounds suspicious to me! G-Man, if you're from the area, you should be able to verify if this guy was a coin dealer or NOT. You say you've gone to your "local" coin dealer - does he know this former coin collector? And if so, why didn't they swoop down and grab this stuff????????????? I wish you the best of luck, but you don't buy key dates from retired coin dealers at garage sales. It's too funny. The assumption is that the retired coin dealer has Alzheimers or something similar.
PocketChange, Yes, it is a rather funny/suspiciouse story. The gentleman's name is John. I am actually new to the area and have only lived here for 6 months. He had closed his shop several years prior in the mid 90's. John does know the local coin shop owner I went to, but not well enough I guess. He and his wife do flea market stuff. The garage sale was actually quite interesting. He had everything from pocket knives, to watches to coins, and so on. I think what really made him lower his price was me talking with him for the amount of time I did. I don't really think I got a steal at $750, but I think it's below red book and I'm happy to have the two pieces in my collection. I'm not trying to deceive here, I'm just excited about my new purchases.
No probs. Just got to call you out and make you honest! I remember going into a small shop in backwater Iowa. Basically, you wouldn't believe it.
...oh...and you got a great deal if the coins are problem-free. I quick look at CDN and it seems you got both coins for about G money. If they are better than G, you came out ahead for sure! :smile
Thanks Thad, The local coin shop owner and his colleague said the 1909-S is a problem-free F+ and the 1914-D is a F but has two minor scratches on the back, and may only be able to get "authenticated" and not graded.
Well, you definately want them both slabbed being key dates. Who cares if the cent doesn't get graded, a genuine slab is not always a bad thing.
