Hello everyone. I have great news! I was at my local pawn shop yesterday and I saw some gold coin jewelry pieces including a $20 Lib in a 14K bezel. I took a look at the three jewelry gold coins they had, and the tag on this one said '1843' I suppose it was 1843... but they missed something major... I played it off legit, and took a photo of the price tag so I could go to the bank and get the cash for it. After tax, I paid $579 and sold it twelve hours later for $1350, a $715 profit after tax. I guess I could have maybe gotten more... it's an XF or AU details coin with a pin, and greysheet on a VF25 is like, $1800. But, I got a good margin, and the buyer may be able to scrape a few dollars for himself too if he decided to sell it. Full images below:
That's my kind of find! Sorry, I meant to say "Well I hope you were honest enough to go straight back to that pawn shop and shared your windfall with them, so they could in turn share it with the person who pawned the coin." I would've been tempted to hang onto it, but probably would've succumbed to the quick flip. (Actually, I might have held onto it long enough to talk to the dealer who bought my 1851-C love token with a hole/ring -- he apparently had a client who collected Charlotte love tokens; they might have been interested in Dahlonega as well...)
Well, even if I did do that, they likely wouldn't contact the original seller. I'm just glad I got it, as now I can use the profit to start up my new LLC. Things happen for a reason!
Evan, sweet find. I've got to admit I learned something from you today. When it comes to coin jewelry I always pass right by it. I don't give it a second look. I have zero interest in coins made into jewelry. It never dawned on me to check dates and MM's for some elusive rarity. I've just been turned off by the whole gaudy appearance of that form of display. I need to rethink that approach. Never considered that someone would run a bezel around a numismatic piece of history. Thank you for opening my eyes to that end of the hobby. I learned something new today.
It was probably someones' grand dad who didn't know any better, other than the fact that he loved a young lady long, long ago.
I have made GREAT profit on engraved gold love tokens - but nothing was this great, considering the coin was pretty much unmolested and had full date, denomination, and mintmark. Also, because it was in no bezel, the edge was immaculate. Here are the other gold jewelry pieces I sold - each and every time for a pretty major profit in terms of percentage.
I was being facetious. I've been known to profit-share with people I've cherry-picked, but pawn shops get no quarter from me.
