what's the craziest thing you've ever done? like, i have purchased some school supplies once with all "junk" proof coins (from the 70's~90's) that i have collected through all the 'grab bag' auctions i have purchased (i know i know grab bags are for suckers blah blah... but so far all of mines have been more than fair) and the cashier commented that those were the most beautiful coins she has ever seen haha.
My son tells me the craziest thing I've ever done was pay more than face value for money in the first place.
Junk Proof coins? I'd never let go of any proof coin. Generally, there are only about 3 million minted in total, and even in average condition (PR65 for a proof is pretty standard common condition) they have value well in excess of face! Even a boring mid 70's dime in MS67 or so (not overly uncomon among proofs) is worth $10 retail (yes, I know, far less selling on ebay)... but still! that's like spending old siver coins at face!
I've just gotten rid of junk proof coins...either had fingerprints or cleaned or such.... I like proof coins but not when they have problems. Speedy
My father could not believe that I spent $825 on two dimes that was so worn. They were both 1916d's one ag and the other g-4.
Sounds like my Bro-in-law when I got my S VDB....I never have told him the total just that it was over $700.... Speedy
The things I've done to coins for fun is almost a little too weird. Like most kids living around railroad tracks we all just had to put pennies on the tracks and see if a freight or passanger would make a difference. Drill holes in coins to make a charm for a girl. Melt different ones together with an arc welder. Put coins in a tree trunk and shoot 22's at them. Bury them in concrete building walls or floor for some future gerenation, Make things like pen holders out of liquid plastic with coins embedded in them. Give $100 woth of pennies in beer cans to a couple for a wedding gift. Actually tried throwing a silver dollar across a river. One of our presidents tried that I think. Every sidewalk near my house has at least one penny in there somewhere. However, the most fun I've had was in college chem lab with melting copper pennies in sulfuric acid, collecting the CuSO4 crystals after boiling off the solution, adding it to distilled water, filtering and allowing the water to evaporate under controlled temperatures to form one large crystal. Hope there weren't any 55DD in there.
This is kind of funny because it's exactly what my Grandfather said to me about the family coin collection he had started way before I was born. I brought a coin home one day that I knew we needed, and caught holy heck for paying more than face value. Of cource he owned the only bank in that part of Colorado and was always in and out of the mint in Denver. No wonder he though that way. So mayby your son has something there after all.
I've rescued two proofs from circulation... one even from a slot machine, the most horrible abuser of coins! I'd never let them slip back into circulation... I've ended up spending the junk from my half dollar and dollar coin searching a lot... most people haven't even seen these coins, lol, and it always gets a reaction. Like at the Schlotsky's Deli where I paid with 17 half dollars. The excess from my wheat penny searching I dumped into a Coinstar... I took out all the dates I needed and just couldn't find a way to get rid of them, were too much of a pain to sell... so I just dumped them. Wonder what the guy servicing that Coinstar machine thought, lol... hope he at least noticed...
For some Insane reason just decided to buy some 2.5Lb of US Pennies just for the fun of sorting them they were fairly cheap but the shipping to the UK LOL De Orc :goofer: :hammer:
You forgot : stick a coin with superglue in a place where lots of people walk through, and wait for their reactions when they want to pick it up, and realise they won't...
Years ago we used to do that in front of the hardware store where I worked- dimes and quarters were best. People used to bust their rear ends trying to pick them up. One time we tore the corner off of a $20 bill and stuck it out from under the counter at the cash register. The funniest thing was watching the guy in line "play it cool" while he nonchalantly grabbed the $20 somebody dropped.
I didn’t actually try this, but I posted these links in an earlier thread: penny bridges big penny bridges Some of the photos are a little slow to load.
