And other miscellaneous finds this weekend

I finally got to go through the Eisenhower Dollars in the hoard of coins passed on to me from my mother. I do believe she was looking out for me this weekend. While there were not a great many Ikes, less than 20, in the bottom of the box were three nice ?Blue Ikes? still on their original packaging. Along with the ?71, ?72, and ?73 ?Blue Ikes? was a ?71 ?Brown Ike? as well. Those were nice but the real find from my perspective was in the loose Ikes. Hiding in that stack of dollars was a 1972 TIII Ike. Ah yes, one more hole filed in my album. I always love to find a needed coin for a set tucked away and forgotten, not that my mother ever know the difference between TI, TII, or TIII. In many ways, I relish finding a coin that fills a hole in my album among a pile of coins more than I do picking up an exquisite example of a hard to find, high grade, key coin for one of my graded sets at a fraction of its book value. So I was quite excited to fill the 72 TIII hole in my album with an AU coin.

As luck would have it, there was a coin and stamp show in town this weekend. Knowing full well that most if not all of the dealers would be asking prices for coins much higher than I was willing to pay and much higher than I could get the coins from other sources, a buddy and I went just to look around as a way to kill a couple of hours. Well, I was right, the prices were pretty much on the top end of the scale. Let?s face it, on a high school teacher?s salary, my budget pretty much precludes any high dollar expenditures especially when the same things can be found elsewhere at lower prices. Interestingly enough though, there were a lot of people buying a good bit of stuff. One of the dealers had a neglected bowl of Eisenhower Dollars for $2. I figured I still had a couple of holes to fill so I fished through them. I am glad I did!! While most of the dollars were pretty common, I found 1 and just 1 1972 TIII in AU condition. That was the only coin I bought at the show. But that is one less hole in my album!!! I only need four more Ikes to complete my non-proof album set, 71D, 72D, 74S silver, and 76S silver. For the most part these coins are pretty easily obtained on EBAY or elsewhere. I am just waiting to get the money to afford them. As for the Proof Eisenhower set, that set will be slabbed and graded. Eventually, I also expect to get a non-proof set slabbed and graded as well but honestly it just won?t be as much fun as filling the album.

The find of the weekend, however, doesn?t belong to me, nor my buddy, but rather a 13 or14 year old kid next to me at one the tables at the show. With his album of Morgan Dollars in hand and his mother in tow, he was looking for an 1878 to fill the hole in his album. The dealer had a few 1878 dollars in flips and I think the cheapest was about $125. (No way was mom going to shell out that kind of money. ) Undaunted, the kid asked to look at the bowl of Morgan Dollars the dealer had for sale at $19.50. That kid went through each one of those dollars carefully and wouldn?t you know it, he pulled out an 1878! The dealer looked at the coin, a bit surprised. The coin was in nice shape. The dealer took the kid?s money, the kids proudly placed the coin in his album and off he went. I made the comment that that was unusual to the dealer. He agreed and said he had just got that lot of Morgan Dollars and hadn?t looked at them that closely because nothing seemed to stand out. But he was very glad it was a kid that got it to fill his album. I?m very glad some dealers still look at helping a kid out as an investment into the future of the hobby.

It was a good weekend!