• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Keeping Records Provides Certainty

1 1
USAuPzlBxBob

Entry posted by USAuPzlBxBob ·

464 views

It has been 10 years since I purchased my first rare coin…

And had I not kept records — mailing invoices, copies of written letters, NGC Submitter Copies — I would have scant recollection of what had transpired.

This brings me back to my first rare coin — a rare gold coin — and I’ve always been bothered by my records not revealing if it really was the first rare gold coin I had ever seen or held.

The mystery involves a tale between two dealers — Austin Rare Coins, Inc. and Thomas M. Pilitowski & Assoc. — and how their different Invoices could reveal — or obscure — the truth, forever.

The two coins involved are an 1881-CC $10 Eagle (Austin) and an 1891-CC $5 Half Eagle (Pilitowski), and both were procured at roughly the same time:  June 2013.

I had always been certain that the 1881-CC coin was the first because I talked the dealer into throwing-in a free copy of the 2013 Red Book as part of the deal.  But the Invoices left me in doubt ten years later.

Here is what their Invoices reveal:

                    Dealer                              Date              Ship Date                       Additional Notes
       Austin Rare Coins, Inc.              06/28/13           Not Stated       PRE-PAID BY CHECK; CHECK#: 1794
Thomas M. Pilitowski & Assoc.    June 21, 2013      July 2, 2013                         Due by: PAID

From this information it would appear that I ordered the 1891-CC $5 Half Eagle first — a week earlier — but there was the possibility that the 1881-CC $10 Eagle was ordered first, and 06/28/13 was its ship date.

Long ago, I had disposed of my payment records — written checks, credit card receipts — and all I have left are these two Invoices.

Or so I thought…

Although I do not have the cancelled checks anymore, or even my monthly statements, over the years I do retain The Secretary Register(s) for all of my checks.  These are not little one-check-per-page checkbook Secretaries, these are 3 checks to a page checkbook Secretaries, the best way to involve yourself with check writing.

Twelve pages deep on one of them, there I found written in dark blue ink, two entries among twenty-eight others:

1794    6/18        ARCI
1796    6/21        Thomas M. Pilitowski & Assoc.

I would have written the checks, and mailed them their following mornings on the way to work.

The Austin Rare Coins, Inc. Date is ten days after I wrote the check.  The Thomas M. Pilitowski & Assoc. Ship Date is eleven days after I wrote the check.

By keeping my checking book Secretaries throughout the years, I can finally put this mystery to rest:  the 1881-CC Eagle was definitely the first rare coin,

… and I still have it today.

1 1

3 Comments

Recommended Comments

TheColoradoNumismatist

Great Entry Bob!       :news:

I'm new when it comes to the forum, any forum for that matter. So upon finding this I've learned a significant piece of knowledge just in this ONE Journal Entry. :idea:

  1. I should be keeping copies of EVERYTHING! (Not just coin related things but all things) This will help keep me organized. (I hope):roflmao:
  2. I need to write my own Journal Entries because my wife's tired of hearing me already :gossip: + we're all hobbyists of the same here. :cool:

So for now it's time for me to hit the hay myself but I'm going to push myself to make a FIRST Journal Entry (Hopefully a start of MANY). Until then, thank's for sharing!

 

Happy Hunting ~ TheColoradoNumismatist (thumbsu

Link to comment
jgenn

It is so important to track the financial details of all coin purchases.  The US Internal Revenue Service has a category to handle the capital gains or losses of collectibles, such as coins.  You must be able to establish the cost basis for your collectible in order to calculate the gain or loss when you or your heirs sell. You are always required to declare gains, even from "hobby" profits. You do need to understand the regulations in order to claim losses, and with all the buyer and seller fees involved that you can claim in your cost basis you may need to claim a loss.

Link to comment
USAuPzlBxBob
On 9/8/2023 at 2:05 AM, jgenn said:

It is so important to track the financial details of all coin purchases.  The US Internal Revenue Service has a category to handle the capital gains or losses of collectibles, such as coins.  You must be able to establish the cost basis for your collectible in order to calculate the gain or loss when you or your heirs sell. You are always required to declare gains, even from "hobby" profits. You do need to understand the regulations in order to claim losses, and with all the buyer and seller fees involved that you can claim in your cost basis you may need to claim a loss.

jgenn, yes, you are correct, and I do have the actual Invoices for my purchases.  In fact, I even still have the Invoices and a few receipts for every coin I purchased but then returned during grace periods.

When I was working at that time, I had access to the office printer, and I worked late, often.  With most of the office having left for the day already, I worked out a system of laying the Invoices together on the glass surface of the copy machine so that one sheet of copy paper was used.  I printed one side, then physically had to reinsert that sheet back into the feed tray upside-down, put the remaining other Invoices on the glass surface, and do a print of them on its opposite side.

The single sheet of copy paper could then be placed in the copy feed, Select Print Both Sides, Size Reduction %, and Number of Copies.  Voila!

With the Size Reduction, and clever folding of the both-sides print, the folded output fits perfectly in an edges-trimmed, single-slab, Coin ARMOUR protective pouch, which fits snuggly into the "secret compartment" of the lid of the HIMITSU-BAKO 54+1 STEP Japanese Puzzle Box.

High quality copy machine; the printing looks fresh as the day I did it nine years ago.  In this way, if the actual Invoices should ever get "lost," there still will be a facsimile of the Invoices retained with the coin collection.

Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now