Hello, hope all is doing well in this great hobby. I sometimes post my latest acquisitions or some coins I already have... I might have a question or I just like to share and get opinions because I enjoy hearing from you guys (or gals.) In this post, I want to see some of YOUR favorite coins in YOUR collection and some interesting stories on why these coins came to interest you or maybe even some cool stories on how you acquired them!
I had to get my Pics together. This takes place back in 2001. It was my first-time metal detecting at an old site (1800's). I went with 2 other guys and my friend Dan drove since he had a 4wd vehicle. We were at an old one room schoolhouse spot( sign on tree, Ha Ha!) and my friend Chris already found a nice 1851(later identified as an 1851/81)Lg cent! Well, we were almost done when out of nowhere, I get this awesome hit 7 inches down (approx.). I dig and dig until I use my pinpointer and pop up this most beautiful 1847 Large Cent staring at me plain as day!! It was my first Large Cent ever! I was so nervous, I was literally shaking. I go to show them the coin and notice that neither of them is around. I figure that their just not close by, you know? Then all of a sudden I see this Bronco driving past the spot and not stopping! I pick up my belongings and start jogging down the dirt road (bumpy as heck!) yelling and screaming for them to stop. What? Did they think I went back down the road? What the heck! They finally stop. I get in the truck and start smiling, they look at me strange as many do. LOL. Anyways, I pull out the coin from a tissue and their look was priceless! They were surprised that I wasn't mad. Now, I'll always not only cherish the coin but my story and a vivid picture of me jogging down the road and a dream. A dream of finding a coin that long ago, and in this instance, a teacher or student lost it there. It's in such nice condition, I grade it a EX40+ Details. It was in clay-like soil. That's what saved it I believe. I hope you all enjoyed my story and the Pic of the coin!
That is the kind of story I was looking for! Wow! If only that cent could talk! It is in really nice condition for being lost in the ground for all that time, almost looks lost in time! Thats really cool how the clay helped preserve it. Memories like the story you tell are priceless! As a matter of fact, I know of an old run down school house where my grandpa went back in the 1930s when he was a kid down near a really small town south of San Antonio, TX (I'm not telling lol) that has since been grown up. I still remember the spot exploring when I was a kid... The ruins of the bricks still remained there and I remember the skeletons of some "old school" desks! (At least they did about 20 + years ago, who knows if its still there now) I haven't visited the town in a very long time... I might take my metal detector and go on a road trip and go hunt around there if it is even still there!
Found this CRH a few years ago,by far the most unique coin in my collection and the story's it could tell.
I got a coin with a good story... back around 2012 I had taken a trip to one of my local coin shops (now gone) and they were closed due to "flu" well I was walking back to my car and this guy comes up about my age with a handful of so-so morgans. Well I told him the shop was closed and he starts cussing and saying he hates to sell those off to the local pawnshop but he needed gas to make it to payday... so he offered me a choice of any of the morgans for a 20... most were fairly worn common date stackers (melt value coins) but I grabbed a fairly nice 1890 and even gave him an extra 10 for it (so 30 bucks) so here I had this fairly nice morgan and took it home... the very next day I read an article about several new VAMs recently discovered... On comparison... Mine was one of them... so off to ANACS she went (the only tpg attributing the new VAM at that time) and low and behold I have one of 23 1890p VAM15a's but the gets better... shortly after that another new VAM for the 90p the 15b (both variants of vam 15 as die cracks expanded) Well I checked again and sure enough... Mine fits the later stage 15b though I have yet to resubmit it to get it changed... Last nifty fact... It was the very 1st coin I ever sent off to be entombed Not shabby for 30 bucks lol
Just checked there are now a total of 64 (a,b and c but now combined into just 15a lol) so with only 64 of em that puts her at R8.3 on the pcgs scale or an R-5 on the sheldon-breen scale (was r-6 before they combined them lol) and an R-8 on the URS scale (your choice)
I've got one with a story too. The year was about 1971. I was 12 y/o and was a CIT (Counselor In Training) in the summer day camp I attended as a camper since 1963. During the summer we had an intra-camp competition called Color Wars. There were two teams, red and blue. There were many activities during the week of Color War. Swimming races, baseball games, track and field, sing offs, scavenger hunts, and so on. One of the competitions held in the pool was a penny drop. What that entailed was dumping rolls of pennies into the pool, scattered all over the shallow and deep end. The participating campers were to dive in, collect as many pennies off the bottom and bring them to their teams counter. Being a CIT, I was one of the counters. As the kids were all doing their thing trying to collect as many pennies as possible I was tallying them up. Now I've been 'collecting' coins since I was about seven y/o (same age as my grandson is now, who I've been introducing to the world of coins), so I was aware of the more rare cents in the collection and always on the lookout for them. Lo and behold I spotted an older looking wheatie. Keep in mind, back in 1971 it wasn't uncommon to find a good amount of wheatie's in circulation. Upon further inspection I spotted the infamous 1909, no S But I was totally aware of its cousin the VDB. My luck prevailed that day. I'd found a 1909 VDB. I was giddy with joy. After the competition was over I asked the camp director if it was ok for me to keep my coveted find. He was happy seeing the joy on my face and enthusiastically said 'of course you can keep it'. So without further ado, and boring y'all any further, I present to you my 1909 VDB:
Story..... I was in the fourth or fifth grade in Oklahoma. My mother had given me a Franklin half to buy my lunch with at school. I had never seen a coin like that and went hungry that day. A rabid young coin collector was born..... Go forward a few months and I am on the playground at school and I find a pirate coin on the playground!.. It was a modern copy of course but I was hearing none of it because we all know that pirates hide their booty on school playgrounds in Oklahoma.... But I was such a hooked coin junkie by then... Fast forward through the years and the pirate coin always burned in some compartment in my head. The army put me in South Carolina and I stayed in the 1980's... 1989 rolls around and our state is brutalized by hurricane Hugo. In the aftermath a coin collecting and metal detector buddy invited me to the coast with him. He wanted to search the coast after the hurricane. I went with him and found the coin below and my childhood pirate coin dream had finally been realized.
