What's the Dumbest Thing You Ever Did to a Coin

Like the OP, I used an eraser on a very nice VG 1875-s Twenty Cent Piece. How bad does that degrade it I wonder?

 

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a "cleaned coin" is always labeled as such to my understanding. Some collectors won't touch a "cleaned coin".

 

Here's ONE one my many dumb things. I put a 1938 cent on a gas burner on the cooking stove (my mom was outside) and I wanted to see what extreme heat would do to a copper penny. To my amusement, it formed bubbles in the field above the date. (trapped gases) I put it in cold water after cutting off the stove hiding my crime. I was about 8 years old.

 

No problem. You bought it from my boss.

 

Not as bad as some of the horror stories, because at least the coin stayed in the family. In the late 50's I worked in my father's grocery store. One of my jobs was to deliver groceries to shut-in's in the surrounding neighborhood. One of the elderly ladies had a huge water bottle (5 gallon?) filled with old coins. She tipped me with coins from the jar. One day she tipped me a penny (what, just one cent? to my young innocent mind), and she told me that it was worth much more but didn't say how much more. To make a long story a little shorter, my father had instructed me to give him all the old coins and he'd repay me with current coins double their face value. Good deal, right? So wrong. The penny that I was given was a 1909 s v.d .b. My father said it was worth a dollar so to me that was instant riches! At least my father, when he sold it, used the money (never found out what he sold it for in the mid 60's) to help the family move from PA to GA. My loss, but the family's gain. The reason I remember it was that I noticed the "s" and the v.d .b on the reverse.

 

PCGS and NGC will slab a cleaned coin but, it depends on how much it was cleaned. I've seen a lot of Seated Dollars that were lightly cleaned in straight graded slabs.

 

buy it

 

Nope, never did. I always thought coins were supposed to look like they did and never touched them unless I was putting them in my album. Never did anything to improve their appearance.

But since coming here, I've learned a lot of ways to do that! Haven't yet, maybe never will.

 

The dumbest thing doesn't necessarily have to involve cleaning, polishing or improving the appearance of a coin. It could be buying, selling, losing, trading, or some other faux pas. It does seem like the preponderance of dumb things involves cleaning though.

 

Back in the 1970's and maybe the 1980's people would go into Casino's with Silver Peace Dollars and Morgan's and drop them into the slot machine's. I dropped plenty as I wasn't a collector at the time! Boy, that was truly dumb and unbelievable but true. At that time I was young, dumb and full of none. See what I did there!

 

I imagine the slot machine dollars were pretty marked up. But if one of them were a rare date then who knows. I would guess that even back then enough collectors were aware of the rare ones and would have taken them out of their misery.

 

3 different times I did the same dumb thing with coins. Carried them in my pocket and lost them. One was a double eagle, one was a gold plated Elizabeth II half penny, another time it was a small packet of 2000 year old silver coins from the western part of India. So, now I make it a rule to NOT carry coins in my pocket, other than pocket change to spend.

 

I guess I get a pass. I didn't do any of those things. I may have lost a valuable coin, but if I did, I didn't know it. I was just trying to fill holes in my album.

 

Sent it to greatcollections.com

 

I like slabs, but would rather not pay extra for scratch resistant or gold shield for the Genuine Details. Just graded 18 Morgans for the anniversary... 15 came back details xf cleaned :/ i am always too optimistic (or maybe just can't tell a difference)

 

Told you this thread would make the big time. Great thread Rodney

 

She would of slapped the taste right out of your mouth. You dodged a bullet

 

Adore honest people. Priceless

 

I would think you tried to tunnel into the west point mint

 

I think Fred gave me an O Morgan. Did I mention I still love him