THE HOLY GRAIL OF CENTS 1909-S VDB updated photos

waseeker

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Dec 20, 2006
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Won't try to keep you in suspense. As the title says I found a 1909 S VDB today while searching a bag of cents.

Here is the rest of the story. It's kinda long but hey I don't find one of these every day.

I have 3 branch banks that sell me the bags that come off of their coin counters. Recently the big volume one got a new counter that uses a big bin rather than individual bags to store coin that is run through the machine. I was pretty bummed out about it since my volume is way down. However, a couple of weeks ago one of my favorite tellers from that branch got a promotion to another branch that I never visit because it is out of the way. Anyway, yesterday I had some extra time while running errands and pick-ups so I went by that branch to see what they had. I managed to pick up 2 cent bags and 1 dime bag. The dime bag had 4 silver roosies in it, which is about normal these days so I was pretty happy with that.

I had intended to play golf or metal detect today, but it was one of those Pacific Northwest days where it was raining at home, snowing in the higher elevations and just too darn cold and windy to play golf or detect. So I grabbed a bag on cents and started searching. It was a typical bag and I had found 7 or 8 wheats and put them in my little collection bowl. I found a very worn cent that was wheat side up and as is my practice I put it off to the side to look at when I finished the bag. Soon thereafter I found a pretty nice 1919 and into the bowl it went. Then found another one wheat side up that looked like it might be old so I sat it to the side. After finishing the bag I turned my attention to the 2 that I had set aside. The really worn one was a 1913, so I was happy. Then I picked up the other one and looked at the reverse (without a magnifying glass). I noticed what I figured was a bit of damage at the bottom and flipped the coin over. Staring at me was a gorgeous 1909S. Remembering what I thought was damage and immediately recalling that some of the S VDB reverses have a very weak S VDB, I turned the coin back over and looked at it with a magnifying glass at a slightly different angle. Sure enough there it was. I screamed and yelled to my wife that I had found the holy grail. She humored me by saying that's nice dear and went on with her work :laughing9:

Once I came down from the ceiling I called or texted everyone I know who would be interested in my find. Then I thought time to get this puppy on TN. Of course the battery in my camera was flat, so I posted a quick note about the find in another thread here about the oldest finds among the rare cents. I put the battery in the charger and tried to get a few other things done. After about an hour I checked the charger and the charged light still wasn't on so not wanting to rush things, I went out to run my errands and came back a couple of hours later figuring that the battery would be charged. The charged light still wasn't on, but I figured it had enough charge by now so that I could get a couple of pics taken. Turns out the battery wasn't flat it was DEAD. I tried another camera, but couldn't get a close enough focus for a good pic. So now I'm really p*ssed, so I go to the Sony website to see if they even still stock a battery for this camera. ( it is an old Mavica that uses 3.5" disks as the recording media). They did have the battery so I ordered one. At about the same time I pressed the purchase button on the Sony site I thought maybe Batteries Plus would have one. So I went to their web site and sure enough there it was. Called the local store to inquire and they had it in stock. They did so it was back in the car for a 15 mile trip to the area where I had just been running errands to pick up a battery. Of course all the way there and back I'm hoping some idiot doesn't hit me or that I don't have a heart attack or car trouble because I was so excited to get the battery and be able to post the pic. :laughing7:

So here is the pic. As you can see the VDB is kinda faint when looking straight at the reverse. But, one of the known reverses is referred to as the faint VDB. You can see it a bit better in the partial pic.
 

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BuffaloBoy

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Feb 16, 2011
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Re: THE HOLY GRAIL OF CENTS 1909-S VDB

WOW, congrats on the find of a lifetime!!! :icon_sunny:

This is definately the KING of the lincoln wheat cent series, it's in spectacular shape too for being 103 years old.

HH,
BuffaloBoy

Congratulations on the well deserved banner!!
 

rocky raccoon

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Jan 24, 2012
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Re: THE HOLY GRAIL OF CENTS 1909-S VDB

very rare find indeed...congratulations
 

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waseeker

waseeker

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Re: THE HOLY GRAIL OF CENTS 1909-S VDB

BuffaloBoy said:
WOW, congrats on the find of a lifetime!!! :icon_sunny:

This is definately the KING of the lincoln wheat cent series, it's in spectacular shape too for being 103 years old.

HH,
BuffaloBoy

I grade it VF. I have been thinking about where it could have been all of these years. One possibility is that we had an ANA Money show here in Portland 3-4 years ago, and I know in the past as advertising someone would spend a S-VDB and then publish a notice in the local paper about it. Maybe it came from there or someones penny jar or.....
 

jeff of pa

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Re: THE HOLY GRAIL OF CENTS 1909-S VDB

Nice Find !

I Would like to see some sharper pics
 

Argentium

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Feb 2, 2008
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Re: THE HOLY GRAIL OF CENTS 1909-S VDB

You got my BANNER vote - That coin has got to be VF, or close to it ! probably a $900. coin
Great Find ! Argentium.
 

Gooseman

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Dec 14, 2011
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Re: THE HOLY GRAIL OF CENTS 1909-S VDB

Congrats man, that is awesome. I like most collectors had to purchase mine.

Jeff
 

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waseeker

waseeker

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Re: THE HOLY GRAIL OF CENTS 1909-S VDB

Gooseman said:
Congrats man, that is awesome. I like most collectors had to purchase mine.

Jeff

I purchased the one for my set a couple of years ago, but this one is slightly better.
 

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waseeker

waseeker

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Re: THE HOLY GRAIL OF CENTS 1909-S VDB

jeff of pa said:
Nice Find !

I Would like to see some sharper pics

I'll try to use some different lighting and a tripod to see if I can get some sharper pics.
 

Captaindoodle

Sr. Member
Feb 10, 2008
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Re: THE HOLY GRAIL OF CENTS 1909-S VDB

Congratulations!!!

That's a helluva return on a $.01 investment.

HH,
CD
 

That Canadian Guy

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Sep 27, 2011
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Re: THE HOLY GRAIL OF CENTS 1909-S VDB

That is incredible! To say that is an amazing find is an understatement. If I found that I would be so excited I would have ran the 15 miles. Back in september I found a small collection of wheat/George V/George VI cents and I found a plain 1909. I was overjoyed when I found it but it can't compare to your 1909 S VDB, then again, no wheat cent can. Truly spectacular find.
 

mountainman 2

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Re: THE HOLY GRAIL OF CENTS 1909-S VDB

Congrats on finding the king of the wheats! :icon_thumleft: Good luck sleeping tonight.
 

Yinzi50

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Re: THE HOLY GRAIL OF CENTS 1909-S VDB

I am waiting for the pics for hours since you posted in my thread about the lowest mintage wheats. You got my banner vote if you can have more pics as Jeff requested.
 

Generic_Lad

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Re: THE HOLY GRAIL OF CENTS 1909-S VDB

Amazing! Its been a pretty awesome couple of days on this board, first gold, now a 1909 S VDB!
 

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waseeker

waseeker

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Re: THE HOLY GRAIL OF CENTS 1909-S VDB

Yinzi50 said:
I am waiting for the pics for hours since you posted in my thread about the lowest mintage wheats. You got my banner vote if you can have more pics as Jeff requested.

Yeah, I know. It was killing me that the battery was dead and that I couldn't post right away :P. I've found the tripod for my camera and am trying different lighting to get better pics.
 

baddbluff

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Re: THE HOLY GRAIL OF CENTS 1909-S VDB

Sweet! I had to pay $1G for mine. Congrats on a once in a lifetime find! You just single-handedly rekindled excitement for penny-searching for every one of us here on this forum.

In other news... I feebayed some silver today... I am halfway to my $ goal now toward buying my 1893 S Morgan dollar.

HH
BB
 

ckrakowski

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May 7, 2009
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Re: THE HOLY GRAIL OF CENTS 1909-S VDB

voted for banner right here. nice find.
 

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waseeker

waseeker

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Dec 20, 2006
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Re: THE HOLY GRAIL OF CENTS 1909-S VDB

baddbluff said:
Sweet! I had to pay $1G for mine. Congrats on a once in a lifetime find! You just single-handedly rekindled excitement for penny-searching for every one of us here on this forum.

In other news... I feebayed some silver today... I am halfway to my $ goal now toward buying my 1893 S Morgan dollar.

HH
BB

I know I'm certainly going a bit slower now as I search the rest of the bags I got this week, I even re-searched the bag that had the 09S VDB to make sure I hadn't missed anything else. I had missed two a 1957D and a 1958D. :whip2:

Good luck on the 93S Morgan. I got mine about 2 years ago to complete the set. Of course now it sits in the safety deposit box so I don't get to see it too often. At least it will have some good company.
 

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