Wednesday, March 12, 2008

A Very Pleasant Sunday Afternoon.... By LRC-Tom (Ebay-ID)

This isn't my story. It happened to someone else.(wish it was me lol) He gave me his permission to post his story here. I know if anyone purchase's "unsearched" hoards of coins your usually happy with finding one semi key date. Most of the fun is in the looking. I mostly look for varieties because I'm pretty sure all the good dates are gone. But could you imagine this.....

A Pleasant Sunday Afternoon...By LRC-Tom

I had gotten a call...a woman saying she had a big box of old coins
her father had put away a long time ago. These calls happen
frequently, and the hoards tend to consist of mostly wheat cents,
corroded Indians, dateless Buffs, junk silver, common circ dollars,
etc.

So I was skeptical when she came by, and said the box was too
heavy...could I go out to her car and get it?


It was about a 2x2x2 metal box, with metal drawers, taped shut with
old masking tape. It had to weigh 40 pounds..It was a major struggle
to bend over and pick it up off the floormat.


She was maybe 60 years old, and she said her dad had started just
throwing stuff in the box starting in the early 50s. He had never
been a coin collector...just a hoarder.


I was still dubious, but the "early 50s" part did intrigue me...


It was a struggle to open the drawers...coins were jammed in so.


And the contents....all 90% silver, including hundreds and hundreds of
Barbers. Dimes, quarters, halves, not high-grade, but mostly problem-
free AG-VG with a few Fines here and there. A few hundred more
Standing Liberty quarters and many hundred Mercuries. And the rest
ave circ 90% silver, with the latest date being about 1961 that I
could see.


As I started skimming dates, I began to see that this truly was that
rare occurrence, a "Guaranteed Unsearched Hoard", as we see so often
promoted on eBay, but for good reason never believe. Not many better
dates emerged at first, but there lots of dates I never saw in
circulation even long ago, and I started looking as a 6-year old in
1957 (Barbers? I never saw one except in a dealer's case). And many
of the coins from 53-54-55 were borderline unc, confirming what I was
told about when these were put away.


This was great fun...It took me from 1pm to 6pm, but I checked every
date and mint, and did indeed find some goodies. Here are the
highlights:


3 1921 Mercs, 2 AG-G, 1 G
2 1921 Quarters, one with nearly all 4 digits visible (the other,
only the last 1)
2 1932-D Quarters, VG-F or so
1 1909-O Barber Half, nice F-VF
1 1921-S Half, G
1 1921-D Half, nice VG
1 1938-D Half, F-VF


Oh yeah, there were also some dollars, not that many, but there was a
91-CC in Fine and a 21 Peace in AU.


Going through this hoard, I was a kid again.. "Ooh, cool, there's
another 21!"


It was so nice to forget about grading controversies and Chinese
counterfeits and sleazy sellers and all the other crap, and get back,
for an afternoon, to what numismatics is really all about.


...Tom


p.s. and yes, I did pay her fair money for everything....

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