You Guys Might Want To See This - Latest Purchase

To make a long story very short I just got back from a 3.5 hour drive after finding out about a sale of a left-behind box of paper currency and a little bit of coins. I won't get into details but I am Canadian and this required a drive to US. There was one picture included and I saw a little box of coins, some appeared in holders,sleeves, etc., an open album, quite bit, of paper currency and about 60-100 individual notes in sleeves, well documented.
Now I am no expert on anything, I started in 2007 with Wheat cents while in college.

The story behind this goes like this. The seller bought some property from a paper currency and coin dealer for dirt cheap with the intention of renovation the house. It has a river behind for a boat, a nice entrance but no electricity and no water. The seller found the box or was told about it, I think he probably found it though for reason I'll explain later. He has absolutely no interest in the stuff other than checking if they sell on Ebay for the prices that they have written on them. Being a dealer, everything is well organized. The seller said the guy appeared smart but did seem "all there". We chitchatted, and as some of you know from my post yesterday started talking about the notes that have the word "copies" written on the description. Turns out, the dealer had some notes plainly printed off the internet...very strange but there were only 3 of them. The other ones turned out to have duplicates with the exception of two notes from Portugal. I don't get it but it doesn't give me a good feeling. Those notes are very old looking though and seem real to the faint touch. All in all, only about 6-7 have the word copy (actual printed ones) or copies (duplicates included).

I have not yet counted all the paper currency because there is around 300 of them, I would say 200 in the binder (As you can see from the photos, they are well taken care of-I think, again I am no expert like most of you guys) and about 100 individual sleeves sometimes containing more then 1 of the same bill. They are from absolutely every country you can think of; Bulgaria,Russia,Oceana,Austria,Australia,England,Lots of S.American countries, Bahamas, Fiji, China,Japan, France,Germany,Netherland (Indies and normal) and so on....I don't think he has any US currency though other than a $1 bill signed by Ivory Baker, Priest in 1955 (Why? I have no idea what the significance of that is).

Dates range from 1920's-1970's with a few from 1990's and 80's and again a few of them from 1890's and one note from 1847. Conditions vary, so do prices written on them. Most expensive one has $125 on the description, least I think $.50

Now, any comments are GREATLY appreciated, any help with regards to how to improve preservation methods, values, and so on.

Let's get to the intriguing part - coins.
Initially in the original picture you could not tell what they were other than what he told me that there were a few of them, lots of people called for coins but he told them he only has a few and has no idea what they are. They were in plastic sleeves, some of them, so I figure they could not be complete garbage. He sent me more pictures in the email and still I could not tell until I got there.

5 of them seem to be vacuum-sealed with foil and in plastic holders. Three are 1/2 cents from 1804 and two appear to be a Quarter-eagle 1847 O and an Eagle 1847......
I compared them to pictures from the Blue Book and Im getting a bad feeling...

I almost fainted when I got home and saw that because I missed it originally. Other coins seem to be 1564 England Schilling, 1662 Austrian Tyrol, 1780 Marie Theresa Thaler in probably AU-50, 1944 Half Dollar (AG3 at most since 19 is missing but 44 is there) some wheat pennies, some old francs, a bag of 1941 US dimes, and these mysterious coins labeled Mexican Jalisco 1/16,1/4 1860 etc. They look like they were run over by a tank...

Again, please comment on anything you've read and seen, especially the two supposedly gold coins.

Now back to the 1/4 Eagle and the Eagle. Both 1847. Look at the pictures and tell me what to do...they seem very light which worries me. The Quarter Eagle has a crack in the foil, and I can barely see a coin inside....but I am worried these are replicas. What should I do?
Since I could only upload 5 pictures, I decided to host them on Flicker, here is the link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/54370001@N08/

Attached photos are only the max allowed here, the rest with better angles are on Flicker.

Please,please any info regarding any of this is very valuable to me!
If any part of my post is against the rules, please let me know.

I am really woried that none of this is real, just a gut feeling. Man I'll be losing sleep over this for sure!


Oh by the way I paid $80 for this.

EDIT: $1 Bill signed by Ivy Baker Priest not Ivory Baker, a priest

 

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If it was me, I say bust open the foil and see what you got. It can't possibly harm the value to remove them and then maybe you can see if they are genuine.

 

In regards to the foil coins...are you sure there is actually a coin present there? I was under the impression that before collectors had the internet that was a method used to show other collectors via snail mail what coins they had recently purchased without the risk of sending the real thing in the mail?

 

Maybe, but Im not sure if you can see in the pictures but I have one showing the edge of it and in hand you can clearly see a coin rim, the quarter eagle. The Eagle in not cracked anywhere as far as foil goes so I can't see anything. I still don't get the description though on the Quarter Eagle

 

So he wrapped coins in foil? Weird. Maybe toning them? Or.... Maybe they're really those foil-covered chocolate candy coins. Haha jk. I agree with blsmothermon, crack 'em open. Even if it somehow hurts the coin to open them, wouldn't you rather risk that to find out than wonder?

 

Those seem like they were vacuum-sealed to me and I heard that its a really good way of preservation although grading companies sonically seal them.

EDIT: Maybe not vacuum sealed, but sealed in some way as to take the air out of the foil and cut the foil thats not covering the coin. Never saw a coin preserved like that so Im clueless really.

 

USMoneyLover, I have heard of the same thing. It was also common to fill those foil impressions with plaster to preserve them. The original owner being a dealer, I could see that if it was his method of marketing coins to buyer thru the mail. Otherwise, why have three identical half cents? If they are coins, JACKPOT! I say you should have a contest for one of the 1804 1/2 Cents! jk

 

You might be right, but I hope you're not haha. So breaking them open is the only way? How about all the writing on the description of the Quarter Eagle how the rimm is cracked between something and something and all those symbols?

EDIT:I figured i'd open them and of course nothing by air and basically what USMoneyLover was talking about.....Well played Mr.Uknown Dealer, you got me gooooooooddd..

I'm so mad,I can't even appreciate the other stuff at the moment. Time to hit the hay.

 

Peter please fix this problem. This thread is 2 1/2 screens wide...

 

I thought it was just me that was having issues with the threads being so wide.

 

They know about the problem, but we need to let him know which threads have this problem...

 

When I use AOL as my browser I have the scrolling problem. If I switch to Fire Fox the scrolling issue dissappears....

 

j.

 

Thanks. I switched over and it's a lot better. A bit wide, but that may be because I need 125% magnification to read it easily ? It is wider than my "wide screen monitor" but much better with FireFox

Thanks for the tip.

gary

 

Sorry to continue the threadjack, but for diagnostic purposes for the admins:

The thread is EXACTLY as wide as it HAS to be to accommodate:

The left margin div(s)
The main div(s) containing the nav tools at top and the thread itself WITH THE IMAGES
The right div(s) containing the Support CoinTalk and Recent Threads nav bar.

The images are the issue. Neither the left nor right sides are any different in width than normal, but the thread/posts adopt the width of the images.

If the images would truly show as THUMBNAILS, allowing enlargement by clicking, the problem would be solved.

=================

 

Gary
The latest version of Goggle Chrome, Fire Fox and IE 9 (beta) all solved the problem for me.

 

Anyone have any idea about the Mexican Jalisco coins? Pictures are on Flcker, in the link I provided.

 

how on earth can you determine that the coin is fake without seeing it?

 

There is a concept in the hacking society of social hacking. Often the weakest part of security is the stupid human.