Holy crap kirk, that's amazing! Did you give southern coins the 1k reward? I'm sure you offered but did they accept?
They refused the reward, but allowed me to repay them by taking them to a nice lunch at Dragos. Really good people over there, but I'm sure that they took a pretty good hit on that one. I still don't have any. The next time that I go to my SDB I'll snap a couple of pics. It looks like an honest G-4.
Heck, I carry one, and would be out of sorts (just like OP) if I lost it. The little bugger is like an old friend.........
Even if it was a memory of your grandfather, I really think you shouldn't be carrying an $800+ coin around like that. Nice story though.
How about a "new" pocket piece? Here's mine... I bet there aren't many circulated silver Ikes. So it'll be super-rare!