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<p>[QUOTE="lordmarcovan, post: 3130481, member: 10461"]<font face="Georgia"><font size="5"><span style="color: #006600">...</span></font></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><font size="5"><span style="color: #006600"><br /></span></font></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><font size="5"><span style="color: #006600"><strike>The homeowner</strike> <i>Dave</i> looks down at the bottom of the box where the broken jar lies. He sees that it is spilling out <i>gold coins</i>, and that the other unbroken jars also appear to be full of them as well.</span></font></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><font size="5"><span style="color: #006600"><br /></span></font></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><font size="5"><span style="color: #006600">He picks one of the coins up. Despite having lain in the muck at the bottom of the strongbox for one and a quarter centuries, it shines as brightly as the day it was made, and appears to have very little wear or evidence of circulation on it. </span></font></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><font size="5"><span style="color: #006600"><br /></span></font></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><span style="color: #006600"><font size="5">Delirious</font></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0)"><font size="5"> and in a giddy state of shock, he grabs up each of the jars, unscrews their lids, and pours out their coin contents into a wooden box which he has lined with a towel.</font></span></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0)"><br /></span></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0)"><font size="5">They are all United States Liberty Head gold pieces. </font></span></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0)"><br /></span></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0)"><font size="5">A few are tiny little gold dollars which amaze him, as he has never seen one before, but most are $2.50 quarter-eagles and $5.00 half-eagles. There are only six or eight $10.00 eagles and four $20.00 double-eagles. And there is one $3.00 gold piece, which strikes him as quite unusual indeed. Like the gold dollars, it features the portrait of a lady wearing an odd feathered headdress which sort of - but not <i>quite</i> - resembles an Indian war bonnet. He will later hear this design referred to as an "Indian Princess", though the lady on the coin looks nothing like a Native American.</font></span></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0)"><br /></span></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0)"><font size="5">He does not notice the mintmarks on the coins, being a non-collector, but later, when the treasure is inventoried, it will be noted that many of the coins are from Southern branch mints like Charlotte (North Carolina), </font></span></font><font size="5"><font face="Georgia"><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0)">Dahlonega (Georgia), and New Orleans (Louisiana). The Charlotte and Dahlonega coins are particularly rare, since those mints operated for such a relatively short time, and he has the remarkable good fortune to have found a hoard of them in unusually high grades of preservation. </span></font></font></p><p><font size="5"><font face="Georgia"><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0)"><br /></span></font></font></p><p><font size="5"><font face="Georgia"><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0)">Most of the Southern gold in the hoard grades Extremely Fine to About Uncirculated, not that these distinctions mean anything to Dave. There are plenty of Uncirculated pieces as well, though few of the Southern mint coins are Mint State examples. Only a few coins from the broken jar have orange colored deposits from the rusted iron of the box they lay buried in. The rest are bright and pristine despite their long burial.</span></font></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0)"><br /></span></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0)"><font size="5">The most worn coin in the hoard looks like this 1842-D half-eagle from Dahlonega.</font></span></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0)"><br /></span></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0)"><font size="5"><img src="https://collectivecoin.imgix.net/OQuXILt4QXOJ05jSBxa9_USA-5-1842D-230000-coin-800x500.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></font></span></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0)"><font size="3"><a href="https://collectivecoin.com/lordmarcovan/SL50Qie7LLIUhnykKUjI/dxa8ZDsV6U0KcPYCc1JP" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://collectivecoin.com/lordmarcovan/SL50Qie7LLIUhnykKUjI/dxa8ZDsV6U0KcPYCc1JP" rel="nofollow">Ex-Lord Marcovan Eclectic Box collection</a></font></span></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0)"><br /></span></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0)"><font size="5">Dave notices that one of the quarter-eagles has a slightly different Liberty head and eagle, though it has essentially the same design as the later coins. He sees the letter "C" above the date, which he will later learn is the mark of the short-lived mint at Charlotte, North Carolina, which closed in 1861 due to the outbreak of the Civil War. This coin is the earliest dated gold piece in the box. It is dated 1839, which happens to have been only the second year the Charlotte Mint was in operation. A coin dealer will later inform him that this type is called a "Classic Head", and its grade of preservation as well as the Charlotte mintmark makes it rare and valuable indeed.</font></span></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0)"><br /></span></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0)"><font size="5"><img src="http://coinfacts.com/quarter_eagles/classic_head_quarter_eagles/1839c_quarter_eagle_obv.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /><img src="http://coinfacts.com/quarter_eagles/classic_head_quarter_eagles/1839c_quarter_eagle_rev.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></font></span></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0)"><a href="http://coinfacts.com/quarter_eagles/classic_head_quarter_eagles/1839c_quarter_eagle.htm" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://coinfacts.com/quarter_eagles/classic_head_quarter_eagles/1839c_quarter_eagle.htm" rel="nofollow"><font size="4">Image credit: coinfacts.com</font></a></span></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0)"><br /></span></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0)"><br /></span></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0)"><font size="5">But the lone $3.00 gold piece later turns out to be the most valuable single coin in the box, as it happens to be a great rarity. It was struck in 1854 and bears the "D" mintmark of the equally short-lived Dahlonega mint. It also happens to have been from the only year Dahlonega struck $3.00 pieces. And since no $3.00 pieces were struck at Charlotte, it is the only Southern branch mint $3.00 gold piece ever made, with the exception of the 1854-O coins from New Orleans. Despite a few small marks, it just makes Uncirculated status, and will later receive a grade of MS60 when it is professionally certified, not that Dave will know this, or have any inkling of what the grade numbers mean. </font></span></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0)"><font size="5"><br /></font></span></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0)"><font size="5"><img src="http://coinfacts.com/three_dollars/1854d_three_dollars_p60_obv.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /><img src="http://coinfacts.com/three_dollars/1854d_three_dollars_p60_rev.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></font></span></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><font size="3"><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0)"><a href="http://coinfacts.com/three_dollars/1854d_three_dollars.htm" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://coinfacts.com/three_dollars/1854d_three_dollars.htm" rel="nofollow">Image credit: coinfacts.com</a></span></font></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0)"><font size="5"><br /></font></span></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0)"><font size="5"><br /></font></span></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0)"><font size="5">The hoard is purchased from Dave for an undisclosed sum by an anonymous consortium of three wealthy private collectors and a dealer who represents their interests. This consortium of buyers operates in the utmost secrecy, and Dave never meets them, doing business only with the dealer. He signs a non-disclosure agreement, so the sale proceeds without fanfare or publicity. The coins are held for several years before the ones that get resold are trickled out into the numismatic marketplace one and two at a time, over a period of many years. But many go directly into the collections of the elite buyers and are not seen on the market for a generation or more.</font></span></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0)"><font size="5"><br /></font></span></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0)"><font size="5">Dave keeps just a few of the more common gold coins. He has one of the gold dollars mounted into a ring for himself, and two others are mounted in earrings for his wife. One of the $5.00 half-eagles also gets mounted in a pendant that she will keep for the rest of her life, and wear on dressier occasions.</font></span></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0)"><font size="5"><br /></font></span></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0)"><font size="5">Because of the secrecy, Dave does not know how much profit the consortium will make from the subsequent resale of much of the treasure, but he does not mind that. After all, he and his family are to become financially secure for the rest of their lives. Not only will he have the money to repair the hurricane damage to the roof of his house, but the entire mortgage on his property will be paid off. And Dave's children's college educations are assured. Furthermore, there will be trust money for them and Dave's future grandchildren and heirs, some of which will be invested wisely and some of which will be squandered.</font></span></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><span style="color: #006600"><font size="5"><br /></font></span></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><span style="color: #006600"><font size="5">Though the riches from the strongbox do not solve <i>all</i> of their problems, they will for the most part all live reasonably well for the rest of their days. </font></span></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><span style="color: #006600"><font size="5"><br /></font></span></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><span style="color: #006600"><font size="5">...</font></span></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><span style="color: #006600"><font size="5"><br /></font></span></font></p><p><font size="5"><font face="Georgia"><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0)">There is an oak grove on one side of Dave's property which contains many large, old trees that survived the storm. On certain moonlit nights, the ghost o</span></font></font><font face="Georgia"><span style="color: #006600"><font size="5">f Colonel Isaac Culpepper can be seen galloping through the grove on a spectral steed. Beneath the largest of the oaks, the phantom horse leaps, and its rider's head disperses into grey mist as it touches a large limb on the tree.</font></span></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><span style="color: #006600"><font size="5"><br /></font></span></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><span style="color: #006600"><font size="5">Despite occasional headlessness, Culpepper's ghost is is a peaceful spirit, since he knows that his onetime earthly fortune ended up enriching several generations of a good family, instead of being wasted in a futile and tragic war.</font></span></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><span style="color: #006600"><font size="5"><br /></font></span></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><span style="color: #006600"><font size="5">So they all live happily ever after - even the ones who are no longer living.</font></span></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><span style="color: #006600"><font size="5"><br /></font></span></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><span style="color: #006600"><font size="5"><i>~ THE END ~</i></font></span></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><span style="color: #006600"><font size="5"></font></span></font>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="lordmarcovan, post: 3130481, member: 10461"][FONT=Georgia][SIZE=5][COLOR=#006600]... [S]The homeowner[/S] [I]Dave[/I] looks down at the bottom of the box where the broken jar lies. He sees that it is spilling out [I]gold coins[/I], and that the other unbroken jars also appear to be full of them as well. He picks one of the coins up. Despite having lain in the muck at the bottom of the strongbox for one and a quarter centuries, it shines as brightly as the day it was made, and appears to have very little wear or evidence of circulation on it. [/COLOR][/SIZE] [COLOR=#006600][SIZE=5]Delirious[/SIZE][/COLOR][COLOR=rgb(0, 102, 0)][SIZE=5] and in a giddy state of shock, he grabs up each of the jars, unscrews their lids, and pours out their coin contents into a wooden box which he has lined with a towel.[/SIZE] [SIZE=5]They are all United States Liberty Head gold pieces. [/SIZE] [SIZE=5]A few are tiny little gold dollars which amaze him, as he has never seen one before, but most are $2.50 quarter-eagles and $5.00 half-eagles. There are only six or eight $10.00 eagles and four $20.00 double-eagles. And there is one $3.00 gold piece, which strikes him as quite unusual indeed. Like the gold dollars, it features the portrait of a lady wearing an odd feathered headdress which sort of - but not [I]quite[/I] - resembles an Indian war bonnet. He will later hear this design referred to as an "Indian Princess", though the lady on the coin looks nothing like a Native American.[/SIZE] [SIZE=5]He does not notice the mintmarks on the coins, being a non-collector, but later, when the treasure is inventoried, it will be noted that many of the coins are from Southern branch mints like Charlotte (North Carolina), [/SIZE][/COLOR][/FONT][SIZE=5][FONT=Georgia][COLOR=rgb(0, 102, 0)]Dahlonega (Georgia), and New Orleans (Louisiana). The Charlotte and Dahlonega coins are particularly rare, since those mints operated for such a relatively short time, and he has the remarkable good fortune to have found a hoard of them in unusually high grades of preservation. Most of the Southern gold in the hoard grades Extremely Fine to About Uncirculated, not that these distinctions mean anything to Dave. There are plenty of Uncirculated pieces as well, though few of the Southern mint coins are Mint State examples. Only a few coins from the broken jar have orange colored deposits from the rusted iron of the box they lay buried in. The rest are bright and pristine despite their long burial.[/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE] [FONT=Georgia][COLOR=rgb(0, 102, 0)] [SIZE=5]The most worn coin in the hoard looks like this 1842-D half-eagle from Dahlonega.[/SIZE] [SIZE=5][IMG]https://collectivecoin.imgix.net/OQuXILt4QXOJ05jSBxa9_USA-5-1842D-230000-coin-800x500.jpg[/IMG][/SIZE] [SIZE=3][URL='https://collectivecoin.com/lordmarcovan/SL50Qie7LLIUhnykKUjI/dxa8ZDsV6U0KcPYCc1JP']Ex-Lord Marcovan Eclectic Box collection[/URL][/SIZE] [SIZE=5]Dave notices that one of the quarter-eagles has a slightly different Liberty head and eagle, though it has essentially the same design as the later coins. He sees the letter "C" above the date, which he will later learn is the mark of the short-lived mint at Charlotte, North Carolina, which closed in 1861 due to the outbreak of the Civil War. This coin is the earliest dated gold piece in the box. It is dated 1839, which happens to have been only the second year the Charlotte Mint was in operation. A coin dealer will later inform him that this type is called a "Classic Head", and its grade of preservation as well as the Charlotte mintmark makes it rare and valuable indeed.[/SIZE] [SIZE=5][IMG]http://coinfacts.com/quarter_eagles/classic_head_quarter_eagles/1839c_quarter_eagle_obv.jpg[/IMG][IMG]http://coinfacts.com/quarter_eagles/classic_head_quarter_eagles/1839c_quarter_eagle_rev.jpg[/IMG][/SIZE] [URL='http://coinfacts.com/quarter_eagles/classic_head_quarter_eagles/1839c_quarter_eagle.htm'][SIZE=4]Image credit: coinfacts.com[/SIZE][/URL] [SIZE=5]But the lone $3.00 gold piece later turns out to be the most valuable single coin in the box, as it happens to be a great rarity. It was struck in 1854 and bears the "D" mintmark of the equally short-lived Dahlonega mint. It also happens to have been from the only year Dahlonega struck $3.00 pieces. And since no $3.00 pieces were struck at Charlotte, it is the only Southern branch mint $3.00 gold piece ever made, with the exception of the 1854-O coins from New Orleans. Despite a few small marks, it just makes Uncirculated status, and will later receive a grade of MS60 when it is professionally certified, not that Dave will know this, or have any inkling of what the grade numbers mean. [IMG]http://coinfacts.com/three_dollars/1854d_three_dollars_p60_obv.jpg[/IMG][IMG]http://coinfacts.com/three_dollars/1854d_three_dollars_p60_rev.jpg[/IMG][/SIZE][/COLOR] [SIZE=3][COLOR=rgb(0, 102, 0)][URL='http://coinfacts.com/three_dollars/1854d_three_dollars.htm']Image credit: coinfacts.com[/URL][/COLOR][/SIZE] [COLOR=rgb(0, 102, 0)][SIZE=5] The hoard is purchased from Dave for an undisclosed sum by an anonymous consortium of three wealthy private collectors and a dealer who represents their interests. This consortium of buyers operates in the utmost secrecy, and Dave never meets them, doing business only with the dealer. He signs a non-disclosure agreement, so the sale proceeds without fanfare or publicity. The coins are held for several years before the ones that get resold are trickled out into the numismatic marketplace one and two at a time, over a period of many years. But many go directly into the collections of the elite buyers and are not seen on the market for a generation or more. Dave keeps just a few of the more common gold coins. He has one of the gold dollars mounted into a ring for himself, and two others are mounted in earrings for his wife. One of the $5.00 half-eagles also gets mounted in a pendant that she will keep for the rest of her life, and wear on dressier occasions. Because of the secrecy, Dave does not know how much profit the consortium will make from the subsequent resale of much of the treasure, but he does not mind that. After all, he and his family are to become financially secure for the rest of their lives. Not only will he have the money to repair the hurricane damage to the roof of his house, but the entire mortgage on his property will be paid off. And Dave's children's college educations are assured. Furthermore, there will be trust money for them and Dave's future grandchildren and heirs, some of which will be invested wisely and some of which will be squandered.[/SIZE][/COLOR] [COLOR=#006600][SIZE=5] Though the riches from the strongbox do not solve [I]all[/I] of their problems, they will for the most part all live reasonably well for the rest of their days. ... [/SIZE][/COLOR][/FONT] [SIZE=5][FONT=Georgia][COLOR=rgb(0, 102, 0)]There is an oak grove on one side of Dave's property which contains many large, old trees that survived the storm. On certain moonlit nights, the ghost o[/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE][FONT=Georgia][COLOR=#006600][SIZE=5]f Colonel Isaac Culpepper can be seen galloping through the grove on a spectral steed. Beneath the largest of the oaks, the phantom horse leaps, and its rider's head disperses into grey mist as it touches a large limb on the tree. Despite occasional headlessness, Culpepper's ghost is is a peaceful spirit, since he knows that his onetime earthly fortune ended up enriching several generations of a good family, instead of being wasted in a futile and tragic war. So they all live happily ever after - even the ones who are no longer living. [I]~ THE END ~[/I] [/SIZE][/COLOR][/FONT][/QUOTE]
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