Ronstar
Well-known member
I got a call from a friend whose 80 year old bachelor uncle was asked by an older lady in the trailer court if he would clean off her front porch and take everything to the dump. He agreed. A lot of stuff went to the dump. But not the jug of coins…….
The request was if I would come over and help them find out if any were valuable coins in the batch, I grabbed both the RedBook and the Bluebook and headed over. How bad could it be?
I get there and he had them separated by decades in plastic snack baggies. I sh** you not there was probably 100-150 Mercs, 200 wheats, a couple Barber dimes, and a couple IH pennies! The old guy and my friend sat there looking at me with that “did we do this right to help you look”. OK, how do I do this effectively? Has two 1909 wheats, nope. Two 1916 Mercs, nope. This is going to take all night……
I get an idea….. look through the book and if any coins jump out as obviously worth more than the others in that decade then separate and I can maybe help decipher if actuals. He asks me to show him what I mean so hands me a bag of wheats simply marked 1931 and had five pennies in it, he was told they could be worth more than the others. OK, open the book to 1931 and see if anything jumps out. 1931S is in fact worth around $45 as a starting point. Open the bag and inspect, holy sh** all five are 1931S and at a minimum VG-8 if not higher Oh geez……
He spent all night looking at coins that registered as $2.00 or more and didnt really find anything per se worth much more. My friend is going to look at the ones which could be double stamped just in case and I will double check them as well.
No quarters or nickels or halves, just penny and dime jug. The lady does not want them back, “payment for his time and effort”. I suspect he could maybe get another $50+ if all are sold (on top of the 31s).
Absolutely mind blowing……
I will be posting a follow up on this adventure soon, friend is letting me borrow a coin to see what mine and jkline’s detectors do….. stay tuned, its a mind boggler!!
The request was if I would come over and help them find out if any were valuable coins in the batch, I grabbed both the RedBook and the Bluebook and headed over. How bad could it be?
I get there and he had them separated by decades in plastic snack baggies. I sh** you not there was probably 100-150 Mercs, 200 wheats, a couple Barber dimes, and a couple IH pennies! The old guy and my friend sat there looking at me with that “did we do this right to help you look”. OK, how do I do this effectively? Has two 1909 wheats, nope. Two 1916 Mercs, nope. This is going to take all night……
I get an idea….. look through the book and if any coins jump out as obviously worth more than the others in that decade then separate and I can maybe help decipher if actuals. He asks me to show him what I mean so hands me a bag of wheats simply marked 1931 and had five pennies in it, he was told they could be worth more than the others. OK, open the book to 1931 and see if anything jumps out. 1931S is in fact worth around $45 as a starting point. Open the bag and inspect, holy sh** all five are 1931S and at a minimum VG-8 if not higher Oh geez……
He spent all night looking at coins that registered as $2.00 or more and didnt really find anything per se worth much more. My friend is going to look at the ones which could be double stamped just in case and I will double check them as well.
No quarters or nickels or halves, just penny and dime jug. The lady does not want them back, “payment for his time and effort”. I suspect he could maybe get another $50+ if all are sold (on top of the 31s).
Absolutely mind blowing……
I will be posting a follow up on this adventure soon, friend is letting me borrow a coin to see what mine and jkline’s detectors do….. stay tuned, its a mind boggler!!
