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Domminigan
09-10-2008, 02:29 PM
So my friend and I were going through her room, trying to clean out one of her closets that had been relegated to "junk" because the sink was leaking through the floor directly above it. We were pulling out odd papers and such, when we came across three stacked boxes. We pulled out the first box and began going through it, it turned out to be all of her grandma's stuff from when her grandma passed several years ago. Half of the box turned out to be simple financial papers, now useless because the accounts were closed. The top of the stack was wet, but the water penetrated no further than this. The bottom half of the box turned out to be more interesting. It contained stuff from their everyday life during WWII. Ration books, a pack of cigarettes, a wallet with money, and a bunch of letters.
The second of the three boxes contained her dad's stuff. Nothing terribly interesting, papers, letters, and some coins and paper money from around the world from the time he was in the Navy in the late 60's.
The third box was really interesting. The majority of it was from her grandfather, encompassing items from his life from the mid 1920's to the late 60's. All of his correspondence from WWII during his service, various items that he had saved that he thought of importance, and such. The bottom part of the box was items that had come from his family. Records of service and correspondence dating back to the Civil War. Then there was this bag.

Inside the bag was currency. Currency from around the world from the era around WWII and various US paper currency. The bottom of the bag contained a bank bag. The bank bag was rather weighty, and after we opened it, we found out why. In total the bag contained more than $70 in coins all minted before 1964, save five Eisenhower dollars minted in 1972 and 1976.
http://www.domminigan.com/files/Coins1.JPG http://www.domminigan.com/files/Coins_2.JPG
With the exception of a few buffalo nickels, some steel pennies, the Ike bucks, and a few pre-1909 pennies, it is all silver coinage.
The first picture shows most of the collection, along the top not laid out individually from the left are Steel pennies, Pre-1964 Roosevelt dimes, and Mercury Dimes. To the right are Buffalo and silver nickels. the rest are fairly obvious.
The second picture is less populated, and shows more Pre-64 Roosevelt dimes, a few Mercury dimes, A Canadian penny from 1940, and a couple pennies. The rest is mostly visible. The book is a coin price book from 1964.
Imagine, all of this sitting below a leaking sink.

Who else is thinking "payload fodder"?

barone
09-10-2008, 04:46 PM
What!???? No rockets!!?? :D

Peartree
09-10-2008, 06:12 PM
Tell your friend that this stuff needs to be appraised by a reputable coin dealer. Even if they have no interest in selling them, their insurance agent will need to know the value of the collection or they might not be adequately covered.

Peartree
09-10-2008, 06:15 PM
Oh, yeah, double check the paper money in case granddad saved a few silver certificates or gold certificates. Those would need to be appraised as well. When my mom went through my grandparents house they found a bunch of those that grandpa had stashed away.

People who lived through the great depression and watched banks collapse tend to have things squirreled away "just in case." It's not a bad idea.

Rocketflyer
09-11-2008, 06:45 AM
Tell your friend that this stuff needs to be appraised by a reputable coin dealer. Even if they have no interest in selling them, their insurance agent will need to know the value of the collection or they might not be adequately covered.

Some of those silver coins could be worth a lot of money. A silver nickle alone, in very good shape, is worth $3.00+ depending on year and mint mark, etc. Make sure the dealer is a appraiser first.

STRMan
09-11-2008, 06:51 AM
Some of those silver coins could be worth a lot of money. A silver nickle alone, in very good shape, is worth $3.00+ depending on year and mint mark, etc. Make sure the dealer is a appraiser first.

...and then get a 2nd and 3rd opinion, just to make sure the first appraiser isn't trying to rip you off.

Shreadvector
09-11-2008, 07:06 AM
And no matter what DO NOT OPEN PACKETS OR ATTEMPT TO CLEAN!!

Cleaning destroys numismatic value and leaves you with only raw bullion/melt value of the metal.

Discoloration or "patina" are not a bad thing and part of the coins character. You cannot change a tarnished coin back to brilliant uncirculated by cleaning. Any coin expert can see the effects of cleaning when magnified.

I also suggest several appraisals. And don't leave them. Have them appraised in front of you. A coin store near me does this every day they are open. Very busy and folks are sitting at the counter with trays and boxes of coins getting expert appraisals. This place is one of the best I've seen (but I'm not a real 'expert', I just enjoy coins as another hobby - mostly to spend and to learn about).

Domminigan
09-12-2008, 04:22 PM
The whole thing was nuts. None of these coins were in the pouches, they were all loose in the bank bag, I'm the one who went through the whole lot of them and cataloged them for her. Speaking on the silver certificates, that's what nearly every paper dollar was.


It rather reminded me of when I purchased a large box of greeting cards at an estate sale near me. I got home and stuffed it in the corner and left it for a few weeks. When I came back to pick a card out for someone's birthday, I realized that the box held more than cards. In the bottom of the box were forty some odd dollar bills from 1964, all very low serial numbers, from each treasury in operation at the time with a few duplicated. Below these was a small white box containing interesting coins, cash and tokens from around the world, and some occupation-era German Marks. The funniest thing was what I thought was a commemorative coin from some little novel place turned out to be a real gold commemorative coin from 18something or other. I thought it was a piece of junk coinage until I did a bit of research.

As far as rockets go, I'm building a screaming eagle and a patriot now. Nothing terribly interesting or worth mention.