Horror Stories about Coins.........

Discussion in 'Coin Chat' started by jfscmedic, Nov 11, 2016.

  1. jfscmedic

    jfscmedic Well-Known Member

    What's your biggest horror story that you have seen someone do with coins ?

    I'll share a couple of mine.

    One guy was putting together sets in albums and he Bought most of his key dates slabbed and graded by PCGS and NGC so he knew they were genuine. But he cracked all the Key dates out of the slabs and put the coins in the albums...keeping the label out of each slab. When he brought the sets in to sell he expected to get full greysheet for the key dates but the dealer had to explain that once the coin comes out of the slab it's a raw coin and would have to be regraded to determine their values.

    Another young man inherited some beautiful original copper coins..old Large Cents..Half Cents 2-Cent pieces etc from his father. He decided to sell them but before bringing them into the local coin dealer He figured he would shine them up to make them look nice. So he bought some Brasso and polished almost every coin to a horrible orange color. :arghh:
     
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  3. Collect89

    Collect89 Coin Collector

    A coin dealer at an ANA convention held out the plate coin which is on the cover of the forgery book. It was the Mormon gold piece. As he held it out, the coin slipped from his hand & bounced down the aisle. I ran & retrieved it for the fellow. :eek:
     
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  4. C-B-D

    C-B-D Well-Known Member

    I bought a 1836 8/3 Capped Bust Half NGC MS61 that had some sort of streaky crud on the obverse. Paid $850. Cracked it, dipped it, the when I was about to put it in a flip, it slipped through my fingers and hit my titanium wedding ring. Big scratch down the obverse. It graded NGC UNC details and sold for $500.

    After grading and variety fees with shipping expenses, eBay seller fees, I lost about $475 on that one. Lesson learned. No jewelry when handling coins!
     
  5. BooksB4Coins

    BooksB4Coins Newbieus Sempiterna

    I've seen this more times than I care to remember, even after advising the individual not to touch them. It was one thing before the internet became so widely available to most everyone, but my own experiences suggest it's only gotten worse since it has, and is another example of why posting only proper/true information is so very important. The "silversearchers" types in this world can and do cause harm even if we don't get to witness it.

    Then with all due respect to this "dealer", the collector should've walked out never to return. I'm certainly not saying he should've blindly accepted the tags as proof of grade or value in this situation, or blindly paid CDN, but any dealer worth his salts should know how to properly grade and valuate coins to individual TPG standards without having to submit them first. Simply evaluate fairly yet conservatively, factor in whatever profit margin in needed, and account for the total costs of resubmission for coins worthy of or benefit from it to come up with the offer.

    Unfortunately, it seems more and more supposed "dealers" today lack the ability to properly do their jobs, and is why I refuse to apply the term "dealer" to anyone who cannot offer additional value to their customers/clients beyond the coin itself. Such people are nothing more than "sellers" IMO.
     
  6. Evan8

    Evan8 A Little Off Center

    Youre not gonna believe this one: so in 1964, the Denver mint struck 316,076 Peace Dollars only to destroy all of them, that we know of. :eek: Those poor uncirculated dollars never to know what it was like to be admired and loved by collectors.:sorry:
     
  7. Kentucky

    Kentucky Supporter! Supporter

    Back when I was at the University of Kentucky there was a coin shop I used to frequent. One time while I was there a "little old lady" brought in a bag in which there was a couple of beautiful wooden frames with one-ounce sterling silver medals from one of the private mints depicting famous left-handed baseball pitchers or some such. She said her husband had bought them as an "investment" and since he died, she wanted to sell them. It was heart breaking to see her told that they were worth melt value.
     
  8. jfscmedic

    jfscmedic Well-Known Member

    The dealer in question has been dealing in coins for over 30 years and is one of the most respected dealers in the area. The seller was expecting him to pay for each coin at the grade listed on it's label..even though it had been removed from it's slab.
     
  9. jfscmedic

    jfscmedic Well-Known Member

    Sadly many people get ripped off by these fancy looking medals etc paying far more than the value only to find they are just silver and nothing more.
     
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  10. kanga

    kanga 65 Year Collector

    The worst I've seen a coin being mishandled was by a dealer years ago cracking one out.
    A Morgan dollar if I recall correctly.
    He threw a slab down hard on a bare concrete floor.
    It certainly cracked out accompanied with the resounding ring of a silver coin.
    I suspect at least edge or rim damage.
     
    -Andy- and C-B-D like this.
  11. David Setree Rare Coins

    David Setree Rare Coins Well-Known Member

    I once bought a small size National Bank note at an estate auction from a local bank in a very small town. I knew what they were then worth, bought it for $90 and listed it in the once free classified ads in Numismatic News for $189.95.

    I received about 15 checks or requests for that note.

    Being younger and not yet knowing that Kelly had a book on these type notes, I didn't realize that there were TWO banks from that small town and the one I had was the discovery note being the first ever found. It changed hands three or four times quickly after making the cover of Bank Note Reporter and ended up in the mid four figures. I was sick over it for months.

    I bought the book.

    Ax a follow up, about 10 years later, I stumbled across a hoard owned by the former president of this bank. There were two uncut sheets of notes, $10 and $20, number one serial numbers and 47 single consecutive serial numbers in CU and one tired, wore out yellowed note he had carried in his wallet. I bought the entire lot and still have five or six of them.

    That bank went fro the rarest to one of the most common nearly overnight and every single one went through my hand.
     
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  12. calcol

    calcol Supporter! Supporter

    At a show in the 80's, a dealer inadvertently took one back-step too far in his booth. Knocked over a table in the booth behind him. Dealer in that booth had dozens of raw coins spread out for classification and grading. All went rolling and sliding across the floor in different directions. There was a lot of yelling and screaming. Show officials moved in to prevent an assault.

    Cal
     
  13. Kentucky

    Kentucky Supporter! Supporter

    Brings new meaning to the term brouhaha
     
    hotwheelsearl likes this.
  14. scottishmoney

    scottishmoney Buh bye

    Was it Fred Weinberg that accidentally sent a $4 Stella to a southern California landfill?

    My own story, bought a nice EF Bristol farthing from 1662 that came in from a seller in Scotland. Took it out of the package, looked at it and put it back in the package. Later on I forgot about putting it back in the package and threw it all in the trash.
     
    Coinchemistry 2012 likes this.
  15. BooksB4Coins

    BooksB4Coins Newbieus Sempiterna

    With all due respect, sir; no offense was intended, but it matters not how long he's been in business or how respected he supposedly is. Actions/abilities rightfully should speak louder than both, and my post wasn't specific to him. I know so-called "respected dealers", including second generation businesses, but wouldn't trust them to hit more than the general range when grading even the most common of types. Unfortunately, this individual is also respected even if he doesn't deserve it. Seeing Simply owning a business does not make one a knowledgeable professional.

    Even if the seller expected him to buy according to the now-removed and no longer automatically applicable labels, this doesn't change what you claimed he said to this person. Again, if a "dealer" cannot evaluate coins himself, he's not worth one's time, nor should he be viewed as a professional as far as I'm concerned. Perhaps if collectors stopped settling for or accepting that many so-called "dealers" are not as knowledgeable as they rightfully should be, it would force them to actually learn their own trade and would be an absolute win-win for this hobby. Just to be clear though, this isn't about your friend in particular, but goes for ALL "dealers", be it shop, show, private, VP, online, eBay, all the above it or whatever.

    Coins removed from their holders, particularly most keys, are certainly less liquid in their present condition, but this doesn't mean they're no longer of or worthy of their once certified grade or even higher when we account for gradeflation. Depending on what the coins said to a knowledgable individual, it's not outside the realm of possibility that the grades were perfectly reasonable minus any associated costs to get them back into holders, delays, etc. Any idiot can buy and sell coins according to what a third party label says, but only one who has honed his craft can properly do so for himself, and is what separates the men for the boys, or to be more specific, the "dealers" from the simple "sellers".
     
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  16. jfscmedic

    jfscmedic Well-Known Member

    No offense taken and again maybe I didn't make it clear in my original post. This dealer can accurately grade raw coins and would have gladly done so and bought the coins at that level but the seller wanted what was shown on the label and nothing less.
     
  17. Michael Clarke

    Michael Clarke Well-Known Member

    Grandpop's bag of silver from the basement. About $200 face with 30 or 40 halves being blast white. God knows what was really in there. I just had it stuck in my head that it was only scrap. I asked the local coin/pawn shop if they would check and let me know if there was anything good in there. My mind drifts back to this mistake far to often.
     
  18. Ericred

    Ericred Active Member

    I hope she didnt sell them to the guy, in this world people collect everything. I metal detect and I have a guy who buys all the old fashion beer can pull tabs? Never says why
     
  19. baseball21

    baseball21 Well-Known Member

    That dealer was 100 percent right. FAR to many people believe saving the label saves the certification. The majority of customers will want them graded, he made a business decision. It's not worth his time to try and haggle on raw key dates. He is right
     
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  20. mlov43

    mlov43 주화 수집가

    Screen Shot 2016-11-04 at 3.11.43 PM.png
     
  21. halford@thework

    halford@thework Junior Member

    A fellow approached my booth at a show with albums of Lincoln cents. His father had worked at a local bank for many years and had collected BU examples of every Lincoln minted, and then GLUED them into the holders. Each coin had a big blob of glue on the reverse.
     
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