Find of a Life Time!!! Jackpot!

[Wickaboag]

Hey Ya'll!

I know I just said I was coming back from taking 5-7 years off coin roll hunting but dang it is GREAT to be back!!!!

Here's the story I've been really looking forward to sharing with you all. The other day I was doing my second trip back as a CRHer, stopping by banks while out with a friend I haven't seen in a while (thanks to him for being so patient, haha!)

We stopped at one bank, he stayed in the truck while I went in to just get a box of nickels and pennies, I never have luck with other coins and wheats and dateless buffs still get my blood pumping...

I'm at the counter and I hear two tellers going over to the coin machine, and start opening and taking it apart and I hear the most ear-ringing noise ever to a CRH'er: "These large dollar coins aren't going through, it looks like the machine is going to be broken until we can get someone in here to fix it." I walked away from that teller so fast, and straight over to this older couple with FOUR FIVE GALLON BUCKETS of all half dollars and dollar coins... I saw a Morgan dollar sitting on the coin machine and knew I had to spring into action.

"I have a solution!" I said. "I can count this all for you and buy it all with cash right now." I messaged my friend and he came in to help, I offered him $50. We counted out $800 in halfs and large dollar coins, and then we had to head back to the couple's convenience store they owned to continue counting!

Another $600 FV in halves and dollars later... We walked away with two five gallon buckets of the four filled with everything we could take, and knew we hit the JACKPOT.

As we were separating Eisenhower's from the smaller presidential dollar coins, we were snagging silver mercury dimes, silver quarters, everything!

Here's the totals WITH PHOTOS!

Large Dollar Coins:
.999 Fine Silver Standing Liberty Bullion Coins. (1989, 2000)
1879 Morgan Dollar (x2)
1921D Morgan Dollar (x1)
1922 Peace Dollar
1923S Peace Dollar
1926S Peace Dollar
1971S Silver Eisenhower (x2)
1973S Silver Eisenhower (x1)

Half Dollars
1911 Barber Half Dollar (x1)

1945 Walking Liberty Half (x2)
1944 (x1)
1943S (x1)
1942S (x1)
1942 (x1)
1918S (x1)
1917 (x1)

Franklin's
1960D (x2)
1960 (x1)
1961D (x2)
1962D (x3)
1963D (x7)
1952D (x1)
1953D (x3)
1954D (x2)
1958D (x1)
1959 (x1)
1959D (x2)

Kennedy's
1976S (1)
1964 (23)
1965 (8)
1966 (13)
1967 (33)
1968 (27)
1969 (17)

Mercury Dimes!
16 - Mixed Dates, Haven't had time to look!

Roosevelt Silver's!
3 (Mixed Dates)

There was one old looking roll of quarters in the middle of a 5 gallon bucket, checked both ends, both silver... Brought it home...

WHOLE THING SILVER.

Total Silver Quarters Found:
46


This older couple owned this store for 8 years and this was all their change from that time... WOW.


What. A. Day. !!!

Can't wait to share more finds with you all! Big hunts to come!

 

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[Megalodon]

Incredible story and finds. Did you think you might be dreaming? Amazing and thank you for posting it.

 

[Immy]

Fantastic story and an incredible "welcome back" to the hobby. Nominated for banner, and if this doesn't make it, nothing from this forum can.

Congratulations!

 

[Kray Gelder]

You're more of a man than I am if you can walk anywhere with a five gallon bucket full of coins.

 

[ArkieBassMan]

I'm afraid all of the responses to this won't be friendly. I certainly see both sides. Great score, regardless.

 

[CJ9]

I would definitely say that is the find of a lifetime. Wow. Congrats.

 

[maine_Jim]

That is a nice bank visit and quite a mix. Congrats -

Maine_Jim

 

[Louie D]

Awesome score!

 

[Rosco53]

That's amazing, but I'm not sure I could do that in good consciousness. I'd be the idiot to tell them it'd be worth more than what they're getting...

 

[Dozer D]

Fantastic score. I hope you return the favor to the old couple by visiting their store and purchase something in return.

 

[Uncleslick18]

Oh my goodness. Awesome score!!!

 

[smokeythecat]

Seems it happens once in a lifetime! Congratulations!

 

[Diver_Down]

Quick thinking on your part, but your greed clouded your actions. The nature of the hunt we all realize where the coins are coming from. Finding them downstream from a bag/box/roll/teller, is one thing. Knowingly buying them at face direct from a person - especially an older couple who likely have difficulty in making ends meet is wrong. When you objectively look at the situation, deep down, you know your actions wasn't honorable. There is one way to make things right and that doesn't include returning to buy a bag of chips.

 

[port ewen ace]

you could be in the middle of the argument between the angel on your left shoulder and the demon on the right shoulder

 

[Megalodon]

It has the appearance of an ethical dilemma, but then appearances can be deceiving. I experienced a similar situation. When an older couple tried to cash in a pile of silver coins - including silver dollars, at my main pickup bank, the bank manager called me to explain their value to the customer. I was there in a few minutes and it was not as large as this stash, but still nice old coins passed down through the generations. I explained that I'd be happy to inventory their coins, grade them, write up their wholesale values, and give it to them with no obligation to sell to me. The bank even offered us the use of a meeting room to do this. I encouraged them to take my eventual written offer to a coin dealer and take the best price. It never got that far. I later found out that after I left, they just took face value at the bank and the coins were now owned by the bank manager. They insisted on selling them to the bank at FV despite both the bank and I telling them they could do far better.

 

[enamel7]

There's no dilemma. If they were trying to cash in rolled coins is one thing. They were pouring them into the machine and if you hadn't been there they would have gotten face value, along with grief from the tellers. You got to keep the silver and they don't have to get rid of the clad, you're doing that for them. Who knows, they possibly would have had to pay a fee on all that coin. If that's the case you saved them money!

 

[Uncleslick18]

Wicka paid them exactly what they were asking for them (face value), as they were cashing them in for the same at the bank... how is that unethical?

If they were an older couple, they were likely alive when some of these older coins were minted, and when the us stopped issuing silver coins and started issuing clad ones, so they had to know at least a little bit about what they had.

Doesn’t seem like from the story he lied to them or did anything that was truly ‘unethical’

That comment doesn’t really make much sense.

 

[Megalodon]

I thought I made it clear that I was not judging Wicka, only that it might have the appearance (to some) of being unethical. I then pointed out how such appearances can be deceiving and used a recent personal example to illustrate how someone preferred to cheat themselves than to sell to someone at a fair price based on numismatic value, worried that someone else might be tricking them.

Earlier this year, I saw a guy at a coinstar continue to feed silver dimes back into the machine that was rejecting them. I started a conversation with him and explained that his silver dimes were being repeatedly rejected simply because they were silver. I offered him $1 each for them - which he declined. I asked him if he understood that coinstar was charging him 12% and he said yes. I pointed out that the credit union right next door had a coin machine that could be used for free by members who could open an account for as little as $15, or 5% fee with no CU account. we continued to talk coins until he was finished. His final tally showed a charge of over $95 for using coinstar. He was fine with cheating himself with that fee but selling me his junk silver dimes at 10X FV was out of the question.

 

[TheMastermind]

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!!!

Freakin' AWESOME!

 

[TxTim]

Outstanding!

Win - Win imo.