Know a person sitting on a super rare coin? (Fun Thread)

Back in the late 1970s I had an older friend who owned both a 1796 and a 1797 half; he offered to trade my choice of the two for a couple of my halves (1801 and 1815).

At the time I would have gone in the hole slightly (as I recall, about 100 bucks or so) so I turned him down. Of course, today that trade would net me about 50K in added value and I STILL don't own a "skinny eagle" bust half.

 

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I worked at a coin shop through college and one day this little old lady came in with a set of gold coins her father got as a retirement gift for being the president of a bank. All well and good, but instead of there being a normal $20 double eagle, in its place was a 1860 Clark, Gruber & Co. Pikes Peak $20 coin. The fact that I got to hold it and look it over before it went off for authentication and grading was amazing. On top of that, in a separate little box was a Humbert $10 gold coin (which also went off for authentication and grading). Unfortuantely I never got to see the coins after they came back from NGC. The dealer tried his best to buy her set but after it all, she decided to keep everything (I assume once she learned of the value, it'll be going to her kids).

 

Wow.

He had a RAW 1802 half dime? Did he ever say where he had acquired it?

That is a coin I am always on the look out for but will almost surely never find.

 

I know a guy from the online forums (won't say which one), and I ran into him at a FUN show. He had recently purchased a high-MS 1794 Dollar, and he let me hold it and look at it. It was spectacular.

 

Personaly know some one that owns a 1943 bronze Lincoln cent in AU50

 

I have a bunch of them. If you want to see them go to the
Smithsonian

 

There have been rumors that I read about on other coinage sites that there were 1959 wheat pennies and there were only a few that experts did in fact say they were real.

 

My grandfather told me years ago he had a 1913 Liberty Nickel. When I ask him about it now, he denies it, and says he never told me he had one. I do remember him telling me when I was a kid, it's what got me interested in coins. He told me it was worth a lot of money. I could never get him to own up to it after that. So I don't know if he's pulling my leg or not. Or just another fanciful tale to tell your grandson.

 

My Gramps owned a house moving business. "Structural relocation" if you will.

Being in the business of buying houses and selling them delivered to your land, he hated to see a house be destroyed.

One day we were sitting together watching a house be demolished that he thought was a perfectly good building.

As the walls crumbled, he told me that the old man who had lived in that house was rumored to have hidden $20 double eagles somewhere and his son never found them.

I asked him to rent a metal detector and he laughed, saying I'd hit on every nail and never find it as he drove away.

Still bothers me today.

 

You know you're a coin collector when....

 

A father of one of my son's friends has a Brownback $20 note on a local bank (Punxsutawney PA). It's serial #1. His great grandfather was the bank president which makes sense because most #1's were given to them for presentation pieces.

 

A friend that goes to the same coin shop that I go to has a 1955 Double Die Penny. The condition is AU/MS. He carries in a mini-holder so that it doesn't get scratched. He carries it in his pocket as a good luck charm. Wish it was mine.

 

That would be an awful pocket piece to lose!

 

Made me grin! <grin>

 

If I did know somebody sitting on a super rare coin, why, I'd tell the dummy to STAND UP, and STOP SITTING ON THAT COIN! The stitching in the pockets of that dude's Jordache jeans would RUIN the surface of that rare coin!

 

They still make Jordache Jeans? LOL

 

Yes they do!! http://www.jordache.com/

 

..And you don't own a pair of Jordache jeans? Whoa...you need a personal style consultant, man. Tell me that you AT LEAST own a pair of Toughskins...

 

I wore Toughskins when I was a kid in the 80's.

 

Yeah, well they're coming back, in a big way...