My Mother-in-Law's Coffee Can!

My in laws dropped by the a visit for Memorial Day weekend, and my mother-in-law told me she had an old coffee can that belonged to her mom with "some silver-colored coins" in it. She knew I collected and wanted me to take a look at at them.

My jaw hit the floor when I saw what she had! The can was FULL of AU-50 or better silver Roosies and Mercs (about 400 at my count) and also contained about 100 silver Washingtons (which were a little rough for wear but still very cool).

The best part was the "collection" my mother-in-law's grandfather had that ended up in the can. He had several worn-but-readable large size silver certificates from Series 1923, a couple of civil war era sitting liberty dimes and quarters, an 1868 nickel 3-Cent Piece, AND (wait for it) a beautiful 1822 large cent!

A picture is below... the coin is gorgeous. All the hair lines are perfect (sorry for the imperfect picture) and everything seems almost MS on the obverse. The reverse (which I didn't think of getting a picture of before she took the coins home) had a little wear on the "c" of "cent" but otherwise was also nearly perfect.

What do you guys think the grade / value would be if I talked her into submitting it for slabbing? She laughed at the fact any of it could be worth anything (until I showed her the spot value of silver on Coinflation.com) but the details seem too good to just allow it to sit around in a can. I at least talked her into letting me put it in a flip.



Oh, and here's a picture of the 3-Cent Piece next to a damaged sitting liberty dime, which I believe is an 1857 based on (1) the star pattern and (2) the last digit being "7."

 

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Really nice story!

I'm glad that cent didn't get banged up more sitting in that can of coins.

Judging by the pic, there is wear on the top hair, and behind her ear. The L in LIBERTY has wear, I grade it as a VF-30. The surfaces look nice and original. I'm not good at grading LCs.

Hard to say a value. I would put it at around $165 if slabbed. If it does grade as XF-40, then it jumps to $390. Like I said I'm not good at grading.

I would definitely get it slabbed .

 

nice story thanks for telling

 

Great story. Thanks!

 

Great story, I love going though old coins like that. The large cent appears to have corroded surfaces and as such will not grade at the TPGers. As for my opinion, I would grade it 40 net 12 with a value of around $50 tops, but with surface problems that may be a stretch.

 

Nice color on that Coronet Head L.C.! Judging only by the obverse, it appears to have attractive, original surfaces.

Happen to have a photo of the reverse side? That'd help us in determining the coin's grade more accurately.

-Brian

 

Thanks for sharing. Its always fun to find old coins, have you looked around for any key or semi-key dates?

 

Very nice finds indeed!

 

Detail is an XF. Can't tell from that picture what the quality of the surfaces are so I can't give a net grade. Really need to see the reverse because there are several scarce to rare varieties in 1822. Personally I see no reason to slab it.

 

agreed, save your money.

most likely a VF

 

If the cent makes a problem free VF, you can get around $165 for it.

Save your money? There is a quite a bit of family history behind that large cent,having it slabbed will protect it from harm for further generations to enjoy.

 

Getting a TPG to put a coin in a slab is not the only way to protect it from harm.....

 

Umm, no. My 22 LC is an XF and I paid well under $100 for it.
Guy

 

So will a Capital Plastics holder for a LOT less money, or a generic slab shell for even less. Frankly it has done fine for generation loose in a coffee can, it really doesn't seem to need super duper high priced protection. Even a 2X2 or safe-flip would probably suffice. If you are really worried about it, put it in a safe-flip and heat seal the opening closed.

 

I wonder how we still have any old coins left since there was no way to protect them prior to TPG services? :rollling:

 

It all depends...was it raw? How long ago was this?

Many old coins have been cleaned, harshly cleaned, whizzed, scratched, etc.

Depending on how good the pictures are, you might end up buying a cleaned coin on eBay, or one with environmental damage.

When you have a coin slabbed, especially an older one, people will pay a premium if it's problem free.

 

You can thank TPGs for why we will have so many nice coins in the future.

When a coin is slabbed it prevents a newbie from improperly cleaning it. If all coins were raw up until 1 year ago, imagine how many coins would of gotten damaged by newbies from the late 80s up until 1 year ago?

If TPGs would of existed way back then, as far as the 50s and 60s, we would have so many more nice, problem free coins in existence than we do now, imagine how many coins have fallen prey to newbies improperly cleaning them up until the advent of the TPG's.

 

Obviously we don't and all these pre-1970 coins in slabs MUST be counterfeits.

 

Man...I bet that was a blast !!!

Did you give her a big hug?


Nice Large Cent by the way...:thumb:

 

Please take care and obtain a picture of the reverse. It looks to me to be an obverse 7 which has five reverse pairings. 3 are very scarce {(N-7, R4- 158 to 200 estimated), N-8 R4 116-157 estimated), N-12 R4- 158 to 200 estimated)}, 1 is very rare (N-13 R5+ 31 to 45 counted) and 1 is extremely rare N-14 R8- 3 known. All are even scarcer in XF and above. I suspect it would be slabbed as XF Details (for corrosion at stars 6 and 8) or EAC (Early American Coppers, Inc.) VF30 net VF25 (corrosion is minor), which is NOT XF. But Conder can probably tell you more on that difference.

I looked up some Heritage information and most of these have been dropped a rarity rating since my Cent Book was published 20 years ago.

If you are a collector, then GREAT find. If you just want to convert it to money, let me know. I'll be glad to take it from here WITHOUT THE TOMB!.

ps TPGs will NOT identify the variety without additional payment.