Here is the picture of the counterstamped Ike. Pretty neat. My father-in-law is a huge WWII collector....I'm putting it in his Xmas stocking this year...
Thanks for your update. You didn't hit a jackpot, but you didn't loose your shirt either . Have fun sorting it all out.
Sorry you didn't find any silver. I was rooting for you. I have picked up a few Ikes over the years at banks but never got a silver one.
The heavily worn ones can be worth a substantial premium if the wear appears to be natural. I've seen the '45 to '85 one before. There must be a lot of them.
Thanks for the report on your finds. Sorry to hear the bag wasn't a sealed Mint bag nor yielded any silver but the counterstamp is a very cool find. BRandM (Bruce) is big into counterstamps and may be able to help you ID this if you want more background on who stamped these. Here's another resource online for Countermarked Coins Look closely for those varieties, they are gaining in recognition and may one day come to command a premium.
I have 3 silver Ike dollars that i noticed sitting in the cash register at our local bowling alley, and asked the lady behind the counter if i could see them, and they were all 3 silver. So i bought them from her for 2 buck each! But thats the only silver ikes i can find in my ike hunting...
FYI... I just sold 75 Ikes on ebay and the went for $95. No, it is not a lot of money, but that is how I create my own budget to buy coins I want. I just bought another $190 of Ikes at face and will sell some more after checking for the 71 and 72 errors. Buying them was the right thing to do.
Thanks for all the replies. I don't regret buying them at all. I plan on being an "Ike Expert" by the time I'm done with them! I was thinking I can start leaving them for tips at restaurants. My guess is most people under 30 have never even seen one and will save them, or give them to family members. Maybe that will spur a little interest in the hobby..... If I find anything else cool, or possibly valuable, I'll post pics.
Very cool... you could probably go through them all and pick out your 100 favorite coins (the best BU examples, the best toners, at least one of each date/mm, etc.) and then easily sell the other 900 coins for your $1000 cost.
I thought I'd give you guys another update. I went through the bag twice. The first was a quick look for silver. As noted above, absolutely no silver. During the second look I pulled all Type I 1976 and anything that was MS or high AU with good eye appeal. I found 15 1976 D and only 3 1976 P. I found only 30 total coins that look really good. Of those, 21 are MS. Of the MS coins TWO are possibly MS 65. TWO coins out of a thousand! Both are 71 D's and carry a nice premium in gem grades. Unfortunately, they have only average strikes. (However, for 71's average strike is good...see below) There were some very nicely toned coins...mostly gold colored. Many coins had writing on them, or had been colored for some reason. After you look at 2k Ike dollars you start to notice things... 1. MANY people polished/cleaned Ikes. Particularily the Bicentennials. 2. There are HUGE differences in strike quality. Most of the 71's have lousy strikes. The 77's and 78's have super sharp strikes. You can see the pupil of Ike's eye in them.... 3. Most years are seriously bag marked, even the MS coins. I'm a collector of Morgan and Peace dollars. Mint luster on silver coins is awesome. Clads don't even come close. I wasn't even able to pull a complete set of MS out of 1k coins. My wife is going to take a picture of what I think is the best coin in the bunch. I'll post later.
Here's another way to make a little profit on your Ikes: I put 'em in a 2x2 and sell them at garage sales or flea markets, three for $5.00. It's somewhat amazing the number of people who have never even seen an Ike. On a good day I'll sell twenty lots.
I'm not familiar with your counterstamp tommybee. The five stars represent his rank of 5-star General like you say, but the 1985 date is confusing. Eisenhower died in 1969, so it doesn't commemorate an event in his life. I would think that it's just to remember the 40th anniversary of the end of WW II. Some company probably plated some of these and sold them at a premium. Greg Brunk doesn't list any pieces like this in his reference on counterstamps, but I'll send a copy of your pic to him so he can add it to his database. Bruce