That's an unbelievable story. Imagine having the opportunity to look through all those coins. I don't collect foreign coins or ancients, but I'd love to be able to see them just the same. Thanks for posting the story Barry. Bruce
I worked at a small museum for a couple of years and I could see something like this happening. We had a storage room that I bet hadn't been accessed in 30 or more years. Being a born scavenger/rummager, I managed to locate the key for it. The curator who had been there for 15 years had never thought of thought of looking in the room thinking it was just an old closet. I opened the door and found the room was full of antiques. After doing some research, I discovered all these items had been donated but declared not appropriate for the museum. The curator (being an administrator and paper pusher) wanted to dispose of these items by giving them to other museums. We were cash-strapped so I suggested auctioning the items off at a collectibles/antiques auction. She figured we would made a few hundreds dollars at most. As it turned out, one of the "found" items, a decanter set, went for $3,500. The total of the items sold was just under $15,000. A far cry from the curator's estimate of a few hundred dollars.
:thumb: But sometimes you wish you had not. while I was in the US Army once opened a door at White Sand Testing Range . 5-6 hour of questions,the men in black had me sigh a few papers a few times. I still don't know what was in the room bell&alarms went off I never got to see what was in that room.
I think their estimate of "millions of Euros" is probably way off. Does make you wonder about the wisdom of donating you coins to a museum. Lost for two centuries. Also puts the archeologists arguments that all ancients should be in museums in a sorry light Yep gather up a bunch of common and or rare ancients from excavations pack them away in museums where they can be stored away forgotten in a storeroom somewhere.
How long ago was that? If it was in the sixties or early seventies you might have walked in on one of my father's "secret projects" Richard
Yeah, museums are horrible for coins usually. A friend at a coin club volunteered for the state museum, and they had some good pieces, (in storage of course), and someone had gone through them and harshly cleaned every one. This is of the ones left, as he was able to prove the museum used to have more coins, and somehow the most valuable ones had walked out and been sold 20 years before. I know people think its a great idea to donate their coins to a museum when they pass, but most museums will either lose them, or damage them, won't display them, and generally don't want them. Unless you wish to donate them to the ANA or ANS for fund raising, or you have a world class collection, I think its better to auction your coins off and let other collectors have the fun of getting new coins for their cown collections. Think about it, most coins in your collection were in someone else's before you, its only right to pass the opportunity to own them to the next generation. Chris
Yes, corruption and stupidity exists even in museums. Donating something there doesn't mean it's going to survive or be given better care. The exception might be if it has notoriety. At least we hope more eyes will be trained on it. Passing them on to a new collector gives them just as good a chance to be enjoyed, and taken care of; properly. Medoraman summed it up quite percisely.
Not unusual. Even happened at the Smithsonian. The Mint collection that was turned over to the Smithsonians were subsequently harshly cleaned to remove "tarnish" leaving them covered with hairlines, including the early proofs. I looked at the 1849 double eagle at the Smithsonian exhibit at the ANA in Chicago. This coin was a proof struck and put straight into the collection. Today it is covered with hairlines and has a heavy scratch across the obverse. Yep preserve your coins in a museum, no thanks.
Note that this is the estimate (based on what?) that "The Local" mentioned. According to the articles in German that I have seen about this, the museum director himself merely said that the total value could (as in, perhaps) be in the six digit range. Christian
The coins and medals that Tanja Höls "discovered" can now be viewed online here: http://www.staatliche-bibliothek-passau.de/staadi/muenzen.html Christian
