Rare good luck charm coin nets guy $100,000

Not sure if this has been posted yet. Wish I could be this lucky!

http://news.yahoo.com/video/burlingtonwptz-18190896/rare-coin-nets-vt-man-100k-28454491.html

 

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Amazing story. I hope he didn't sell it right off, but that he sends it to auction.

 

Nice return on a $1 investment 40 years ago!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46560224/ns/local_news-plattsburgh_ny/t/rare-coin-nets-vt-man-k/#.T06wT_EgcjI

 

Just doesn't sound right. A pewter coin kept in his wallet(s!) for 40 years was still MS64?

 

I wondered about that too. Must be an archival grade wallet.

 

Very nice story

 

certainly doesn't. i had a common silver peace dollar coin that was probably around a 30 except for the fact that it had a hole in it. i put it on my key change to see how quickly it would rare. it is probably no more than a g-6 after having it on the key chain for only about 6 months.

coins in pockets degrade quicker then you would think, particularly if they rub up against anything. i call shenanigans on this story.

 

One article infers that it was in his wallet - more protective than a key chain, but even so it's hard to figure why it would grade that high after being in wallets for 40 years.

 

i actually don't see in the video or article where it says it is ms-64. the coin i see definitely seems to have a decent amount of wear on it.

 

This story is the real deal. I was there.

Hi,

I actually was helping out at Martin's Coins on the day that the Continental Dollar came in. I am a friend of the owner, John Martin. As incredible as it may seem, everything about this story is completely true! Gary Cucci (the owner of the coin) actually kept it carefully in a paper "envelope" or wrapper of some type in his wallet. He bought it for a dollar at a flea market in 1969. I sent the coin out to PCGS for Martin's Coins. We actually figured the coin would grade AU58, but have not really ever graded pewter coins, so we were surprised (and pleased) when it came back grading MS64. Just to prove to you all that I'm not B.S.-ing you about this, I am attaching a photo of the coin that I took that appears nowhere else on the web. That should verify things. Mr. Cucci is thrilled, to say the least!

Cheers,

John

 

John,

Thanks for stopping by and weighing in. Super cool story!

 

yea cool story. amazing that the paper envelope kept it in ms-64 for so many years. perhaps he didn't keep it in his wallet all the time, but it was like a lucky token he'd bust out on a special occassion? i just can't imagine that 40 years of envelope friction wouldn't knock it down a bit more.

more importantly, we should find that flea market seller. he seems to have some pretty good deals on coins.

 

I'm wondering..if I had something in my wallet for forty years, what would make me take it out now? I wonder what made him do that? Something personal, maybe?

Thinking out loud..
Lucy

 

I actually saved the JPEG, sounds like even it's gonna be rare!

 

Sounds like the luckiest of tokens! He bought it for $1, held onto it for a while, and now is able to make 100,000x his initial investment. I would love to do that! :thumb:

 

Doesn't someone else on the site have one of those? They should have you help authenticate it too.

 

That's great to have the story confirmed by an eye witness - thanks!

 

I couldn't get the op's video to work but here's another link:

http://www.wcax.com/story/17041824/lucky-charm-holds-hidden-value

 

I think I've read many times on this forum to avoid buying coins at flea markets (maybe the advice would have been different in 1969). Even back then he thought it might be fake. I guess sometimes you just get lucky.

 

That IS a good question, and something the media didn't cover, for the most part. Here's the unmentioned information that might help answer your question:

Garry had actually wondered if the coin "might" be real after he bought it and did some research (he was not a collector prior to buying the coin). He says in 1980 he showed the coin to a dealer in New Jersey (where he lived at the time), and the dealer looked briefly at it, told him it was not real, and handed it back to him. Garry told me he showed it to another dealer in 1996 and that dealer told him he really was not sure either way. So apparently he DID try to satisfy his curiousity on a couple of occasions.

As to how he came to Martin's with the coin, Garry's wife Linda says Garry was talking about the coin with a friend of Linda's, and she told him to bring it in to Martin's Coins-that he was the most knowledgeable and honest dealer in the area. So they took a trip up to the store from Salisbury, VT (about an hour or so away) and came to see us with it!

Pretty amazing story, and the coin is incredible in person! I hope this additional information addresses some of these questions.

John