Checking out Richard's recent post about the stunning Buffalo Nickel he recently acquired got me thinking about a "Best Find" thread. I think it would be intersting for some of us to share our most recent "best find" - does not have to be an incredibly rarity, or anything special even, just the coin you most enjoyed acquiring during the last few months... so post away!
Best find was getting 2 1922 gold and russet toned peace dollars in Unc (likely MS63 to MS64) condition. Clean toning, not splotchy, like looking at a sunset. Got them for $29 each. Absolute works of art. I'll have to picture sometime soon and post. My other great find was an MS65 1926 Oregon Trail commem. What a great looking coin that is! Top tier company certified, and paid less than $150. Nice grab.
My favorite find of late was not even a purchase, or an acquisition, but instead was more of a discovery of sorts... As a dealer, I purchase both small and large lots of coins on a fairly regular basis. Although the coins are evaluated during the purchase process, it often takes weeks or even months to go through them all - putting them up in holders, pricing them, etc. Often, the first step of this process is to quickly separate out the more valuable coins from the, say pounds of searched through wheat cents. It is during this process that, for whatever absent minded reason, I often place coins in strange but usually memorable locations. There are those times however, that those locations somehow seem to slip my mind. The other day I pulled up to a local fast food drive through and after ordering, pulled out my cash and looked in my center console for the appropriate change. I grabbed a handful and as I picked through it for the exact amount, there was a stunning Seated Liberty half dime in XF/AU. I almost had to laugh. I had to stop for a moment to think about how it got there, but the answer was actually somewhat obvious. A few days prior I had taken change from a holder in my kitchen and dumped it in the car - always wishing to have an ample supply of quarters and other loose change on hand. The coin must have been transferred at that point. A few days prior to that time I had taken a variety of loose change from a holder in my office and placed it in the kitchen. Turns out, at one point or another, I must have picked up the half dime with loose change on my desk and dumped it into the holder without even noticing. So, now here I am with a nice half dime and a funny little story to go along with it, so it would have to be my "best find" of late. And, it also served as a nice little reminder to keep better track of things in my office!
Not my find unfortunately, but my daughter's. She went through a box of coins which were all loose and priced at about $10 each, they were mostly 18th century Russian 5 Kopeks pieces, nothing bad, all worth at least what seller was asking. So she sorts through all of them, I am thinking if she wants anything it will probably be some large size 5 Kopek piece from the reign of Ekaterina II, but she pulls out something and says to the seller "I want this one". On first site I thought she pulled out something completely worn out like a old 2 Kopeks coin, so I ask her to let me see it. She kind of hesitated like she was going to buy it no matter what I said, but then she handed it to me. It was vaguely familiar to me, something I wanted too, a 1773 Moldava-Wallachiya 2 Para - 3 Kopeks coin from when the Russian Empire invaded the Ottoman Empire and annexed what they had conquered before shortly thereafter giving it back to Ottoman Empire. I knew it was worth far more than seller was asking for it, so I let her buy it. Now the interesting part. This coin was minted very close to where she was born. It was almost unusual that she would pick out a coin that was not large, not eye catching, and she seemed to have no idea what it was, just that it was "cool". On looking it up in the catalog we determined that it is worth about US$50.00 - it is her best find so far, and one near and dear since it is from the batkivshyniya.
This coin, which is currently at NGC for grading. Unsure if it is a proof or just proof-like. I got it for $300...Mike
Well...I haven't been buying too much lately but my best find was a 1938-D Half dollar...I got them right before the price went up---I paid a few dollars less than VG..(and that was $20 back then) because I thought it was a F12...I sent it to ANACS and they send it back F15!!! Now my dealer and I still think it would only grade F12 because of the skirt lines...so if I ever sell it...it will be as a F12 and not a F15. Speedy
I am very, very glad that there are posters from around the world on these forums. Thanks! It makes things so much more interesting.
well i was born to late i guess to have a really good find but i guess u could say recently it would be 401 BU 2005 pennies
My best find happened once a month while attending college back in the 1960's. The loan which helped me stay in school arrived in check form once a month. I would take it to the bank and usually ask for $100 - $200 in silver dollars. The teller would go to the vault and bring me the dollars, which I would take home and look over before returning almost all of them. Peace and Morgan dollars. Many BU. Denver, Carson City. Philadelphia. New Orleans. Over the space of three years I probably looked through a couple thousand silver dollars. All mine, if I could have afforded to keep them. But, who could have guessed back then what value they would have today. I ended up keeping about 21, and they still reside in a blue Whitman folder to this day.
