Couple awaits payday on find of silver coins

Couple awaits payday on find of silver coins
By Bill Hankins
The Paris News

Published July 13, 2007
ROXTON — Russell and Rennie Herron have circled Thursday, Aug. 16, on a calendar at their Roxton home and mark each day off leading toward that date.

That’s the day they may find themselves a bit more wealthy.

In mid-May, the Herrons, while looking for firewood along an abandoned railroad path, found 500 pure silver coins still in their United States Mint box.

The box had been in the mud at the end of a culvert perhaps for years.

The coins were dated 1996.

“I took off the bands and opened it up and found 25 sleeves with 20 coins each,” Herron said. “Then I noticed the coins said ‘one ounce of pure silver.’”

Herron and his wife knew what they had to do.

They rushed the box to the Lamar County Sheriff’s Department and turned it in.

Sheriff’s deputies began an investigation to find owners of the box, but to no avail.

Deputies contacted the Secret Service and FBI and determined there has been no report of the missing coins.

“We looked back 14 years in our files and have found no report of the missing coins,” said Sgt. Ted Gibson of the Sheriff’s Department.

Gibson told the Herrons if no one claims the coins within 90 days, they likely will be handed back to them.

So the Herrons have the date 90 days from when they found the box marked on their calendar.

“There may be some concerns about advertising to try to find someone who could claim the coins,” said Gibson. “But the original news story in The Paris News might be enough to cover that.”

Value of the coins could be more than $150,000.

 

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That's some pretty high-powered weed someone is smoking!

1996 ASEs worth more than 22 x melt?

 

They are the key date for the series.

Trends= $70 in MS-65.

 

$70 X 500 = $35,000? I wonder where they get $150,000.

 

Perhaps they were dreaming of getting $300 each?

Or perhaps they were misinformed?

Or doing drugs?

 

For ASEs, I would expect them to be MS65 on the low end. Don't these things tend to grade MS68 on the low end and more typically MS69?

 

The article says that the box was in the mud for over a year. I wonder what kind of condition the coins are in.

Lou

 

I wonder if the US Mint will hold up their hand and say, "Mine."

 

If they were still in the original mint box and individual packaging I don't see how the coins would be damaged. Definitely not worth $150,000, but maybe $50,000.

 

wow a monster box of 96 eagles. They're trading between dealers at about $50 each, but as someone said, I can't help but wonder what the condition is after being in mud. Those green boxes seal pretty tight usually. I can believe there might be some nice ones. Even if they're ugly, it's still 500 oz 999 silver!
tradernick

 

So how did they get there? My first thought would be they were stolen and stashed there but why leave them that long. Unless something happened to the person who stashed them. Interesting mystery

 

The coins are mine. I'm on my way there now to claim them.

swick

 

No way, they're mine.

I can even describe them.

they are silver
Green Box
25 tubes of 20 coins each
picture of walking liberty on one side, eagle on the other
they say one dollar on them
did I mention they are silver??

 

Nice try fellows. Here's a picture of me right before I threw it over the edge. Don't know how it got all the way over there, but hey! The Colorado river goes all the way to the ocean and has lot's of tributaries!

 

lmao@DJ

 

hahaha

 

Haha, nice DJ

 

One day long ago I was walking in this valley in colorado and WHUP! Don't remember much after that... but as the last known owner...

 

Yeah, I would say the 150k is a wee bit overhyped. Of course, stories like this in the national media could create a stir and send everyone out rushing to find the rare 1996 Silver Eagles....lol.

I imagine that they will get about $25,000 out of the deal.

 

It's like finding buried treasure, oh wait...they did.