It's amazing the things you find in peoples junk bags. A woman came in today with a coin collection that she had sorted. She had the different denominations sorted into different baggies and so on. One bag she called the "junk" bag which she said was full of world coins and "some old scuzzy coins". Imagine her surprise when I pulled this one out of there and made her an offer on it. A nice Shledon 70.
Lets just say she could buy a nice sized brand new flat screen TV with what I paid her for that coin.
It does not happen very often that I find really expensive coins tossed in with some junk. But lately it seems to be happening more and more often... I'm not sure why. The last one was that Martha Washington trial piece I posted. Before that it was a Clark Gruber $5 gold that later graded AU53 at NGC.
Now that I've stopped drooling, I'll venture a guess for the rise of expensive coins tossed in with junk. I suspect that the increase in the number of collectors from the 50s and 60s who are dieing and leaving their collections to family who never collected has something to do with it. They may be vaguely familiar with late 19th century American coins, but completely clueless about anything less common. These are the example you have sited. Kudos to you for giving a fair price rather than extracting every last cent. I'm sure that not only do you have a clearer conscience, but your fair dealing will be rewarded though your reputation.
