A freind of mine moved into a new place and was doing a little cleaning. For reasons I don't understand, she took the register vent in the floor off in one of the bedrooms. On closer inspection, she found a 1921-P Morgan in the pipe. She took pictures and showed me, but they were really fuzzy. I asked if she could bring it in and look at it close up. No Problem. She hands me a beautiful Morgan. Not shiny bright white but evidence of toning ( the black patina type ) and absolutly no wear on this coin. If I didn't know better I would have said this coin was never handled ( just a couple lite bag marks ). Made my 1921-P AU-50 look like a pocket piece. Gave her a flip to put it in. The place she is renting is only 15 years old and we wondered how it got there. The slots in the register were to small for it to have rolled in. We think maybe someone used it as a place to hid the coin. I offered to bring my shop vac over and clean the vent out and then she told me she cleaned the morgan.. Okay you used water, soaked it and just patted it dry right? No, I asked my boyfriend what to do, it was covered in dust and Icky things and to take toothpaste and a toothbrush and clean it. You didn't I asked and she said she did and was gentle.... I know I must have looked stupid with my mouth down to my chest. I looked at the Morgan under better light and she didn't use a soft bristle brush, sratches all over the thing, real fine but they are there. I would not have wasted a minute getting that thing graded, but now its just another coin with a sad story.
Another member here found one in the same place in their house a while back. I don't remember who it was , but remember it turning into an NT or AT discussion at the time. Sad that she cleaned it like that though.
That's a shame that it was cleaned. When I was a kid I used to drop coins down the air vent, through the grate. I believe they were just Eisenhower dollars, but still. You know, I'd like to go back to that house...
