Henri Charriere

I am sure we have all heard stories that every year, nation-wide, some bell-ringer for the Salvation Army, unbeknownst to him, snagged a gold piece which HQ would eventually auction off. Kind of like the mysterious admirer of Edgar Allan Poe's works who annually for 14 years dropped off a rose at his graveside. Or cabbies who found $14,000 in an envelope left in a cab, or a rare Stradivarius, etc. I use my judgment. And in this case, all is not lost. You turn it into the police, GET A RECEIPT, and if no one comes forth to claim it based on date, denomination, and one of two places it was found, in a year's time or so, it's yours to claim. Begging @Oldhoopster''s indulgence... one day on a NYC subway, I turned to speak to my wife and noticed the gentleman who had been seated next to her had apparently gotten off the train, leaving only two or three others scattered about the carriage. I also noticed he left a wad of cash and asked her to get it. She refused. I gently reached over her to get it and she grabbed my arm. I reasoned if we don't take it, someone else will... to no avail. When I asked her why -- @Hoghead515's gonna love this! -- she simply said, "Because it's not yours." And that, was that. I firmly believe no effort should be spared to reunite an owner with his possession.

Very SAD state of affairs. And it is my understanding, the intricate bills of long ago were shunned because it was very difficult for the average citizen to become familiar with all its features. All I know about the Educational Series is they featured allegorical features but if you were to ask me to describe them with specificity, I could not.

Ain't never going to happen. Their "investigation" was limited to my interviews, recorded for posterity. I got the impression that we are not multimillionaire, if we disputed the verdict, we could take our business elsewhere. If not for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all. I appreciate your sympathy for my plight.

@Revenant With at least one notable exception which my wife and I experienced personally, whether in New York'(s) Chinatown or elsewhere: no Asian merchant will accept a $100. bill (making no attempt to establish its legitimacy, any half-dollar, dollar coin, Sacagawea or Ike) or any old rarely seencoin due to unfamiliarity. There answer is a stock, well-reheardsed response: (usually spat out contemptuously in a firm staccato manner; "uh-don'-nee-dit"!!! Don't believe it? As Morgan Freeman (The Shawshank Redemption) challenged all comers: "Alright, whose going to prove me wrong"? 🐓

To the OP: Hold-up-wait-a-mi-nute. Respectfully, I do not, have never, and will never count any banknotes handed to me by a bank teller. However, it beggars imagination to believe you, presumably a coin collector, would not have immediately noticed the odd "foreign" coinage and which merchant, super market or filling station, handed it to you. Sorry, I'm not buyin' it.

@Mohawk I agree, and if I may, I should like to suggest a re-issuance, for a limited time, of all three Educational Series notes.

My sentiments exactly.

@Oldhoopster Top of the morning to you, sir! You will be pleased to learn my wife thinks it best to follow your advice, and I am inclined to accept for excellent reasons: 1. You are the first and only member to take me seriously, and refuse to ignore me, and 2. The last time I disregarded your counsel, chaperones riding the circuit with what appeared to be NGC patches, slapped an ankle monitor on me which cut off my blood circulation resulting in a noticeable limp. I will endeavor to master Numismatics for Dummies and hope to converse with you in your native tongue in due course. [My heartfelt thanks to top management for allowing me to introduce a note of levity into the exchange.] 🐓

@GoldFinger1969 Thanks, again. I believe I have developed an affliction, setregisetrantium psychosis, which renders a coin collector unable to accept any encapsulation without full disclosure and transparency. To borrow a phrase from the Hon. @VKurtB, seeing a slab which failed to cross-grade, which I personally re-examined via the photos provided and concurred with the call to reject as unsuitable, placed promptly back on eBay as if nothing untoward happened, "makes my blood boil." There are scores of collectors who have avoided that coin like the plague, and rightly so. But every time I search for excellence and see that certification number [engraved on my mind] jump out at me, it upsets me that nothing can be done about it. With DE routinely going for exponentially higher prices than GR, I would be curious to know if you have encountered this problem, and if so, whether an antidote for it has been developed. 🐓

@GoldFinger1969 You're exceedingly kind and most helpful, as always. I know I have posed this question before elsewhere but would like to solicit your reply: if all this information is available to any potential buyer -- every gold rooster I have purchased was accompanied by crystal clear photos of the encapsulated coin, front and back -- why do some members persist in blacking out certification numbers? It has been a long time since I have added a coin to my Set Registry here at NGC, but it is (or was) not possible to do so on the left coast without either a release from the previous owner or no response after three days. (I would hasten the process by providing them with a copy of the paid invoice.) Anyway, what is it these collectors know that I don't? 🤔

My wife and I revisited the bank branch the following morning and I asked her to repeat what I had done the previous day: check the balance in her account, and print the receipt. She did as prompted and when the receipt was ejected, another visual but inaudible prompt instructed her to remove her card, which was unlocked for easy removal. I was momentarily distracted by what she said the day before, turned to her, said Wait! grabbed my receipt and left. The next client removed the card and managed to go on a shopping spree without my PIN or supporting ID. Due to COVID-19, this branch, though minimally staffed with no platform personnel, was attended by a security guard seated not more than seven feet from where I stood. I hypothesized that the cacophony of bells and chimes drove the security guards crazy and they argued successfully to have them removed. I consulted a nearby branch of the same bank and asked them why they couldn't simply check the surveillance tape from the camera placed in the lobby where the ATM's were. He said the bank, citing costs, and the fact a crime had not occurred inside the bank, would simply write off the cost after an investigation. Long story short: DENIED. The bank likely reasoned the error was mine, not theirs.

This is tasteful toning. Some toning is gaudy and garish. Yours enhances it's look immeasurably. And the high grade earned enviable. Nice catch! 🐓

Until failure, never an option, suddenly becomes a reality. We live in a society that, having forgone routine preventive maintenance, resigns itself to fighting fires 🔥 instead.

@Oldhoopster Actually, none of the above, with as much moment as the formation of a cumulo-nimbus cloud which hits an air mass and is drawn out to look like a crocodile as reported on the Weather Channel recently. Besides, I sought to draw you out, and succeeded! It is always a pleasure to read your measured responses. 😉

No offense intended, but I am going to suggest solely based on finish and relief, that what you have here is not only a Last Day of Issue, but the very last piece to roll off the assembly line and, consequently, not only rare but unique. 😉

@Alex in PA. Allow me to be the first to suggest the following: your numismatic interests lie, in part, on Rebel gold and Wa She Shu (Washoe) silver.🐓

My wife, the unofficial arbiter on good taste, agrees, as do I. I was going to suggest evidence of tripling of the right wheat ear at the top, but thought the better of it. You never know when @Oldhoopster may be out and about. 😉

I do not know the first thing about auctions having never participated in one, but what was the reserve price, if disclosed, on the 1924 and 1928, respectively, and does the fact it was not reached in both cases have any effect on FMV?

@rrantique: your avatar looks like he wants me to apologize for the cigarette burns on your 1922 and I don't even smoke!

I am sorry to hear that. What works for me -- I have no shame -- is genuflecting, groveling and in a worst case scenario, throwing myself at the feet of top management. I can vouch for the fact my punishment was well-deserved and not at all heavy-handed. I do, however, admit it is a terrible feeling being a cat that is forbidden to stick its paw in the goldfish bowl. 🐓

I have NOT received the two Morgans I ordered six months ago. FURTHERMORE, the two parties I ordered them from (at extortionate prices: 3x issue) have refused to acknowledge my inquiries. COMPLICATING matters, I had used a debit card which is no longer valid at my request when I inadvertently left it at a bank ATM. PRICES have since fallen, I never really wanted them in the first place, more so when negative reports started coming, and so requested a refund which I doubt can occur unless I provide them with my new number which I refuse to do. EBay has pointedly told me there is nothing they can do despite "demanding" to know why I had consulted my order details. I seriously doubt any member has suffered a worse fate than me. (Now even my Roosters are mocking me!)

🐓: You going to let him get away with this? Q.A.: I'm afraid not. In fact, it's probably the most outrageous comment I have ever read -- unsupported by the written records whether in cuneiform on clay tablets, papyri or codices. I don't believe it but only the Great Zadok would know for sure.

No way I'm going to let you slide on this one! The real reason is explicitly depicted in the 1983 re-make of the film "Scarface." A huge surplus persists in the FRB servicing that city. Last I checked, U.S. dollars are the official currency of all U.S. territories, El Salvador, and three other countries. I assume the millions the CIA off-loaded in Afghanistan are likely still there. I don't know what was ultimately done with the three tractor-trailer loads of USD Saddam Hussein "withdrew" from Iraq's central bank prior to taking a powder.

This illustrates why sites like etsy are dangerous. The owner can rightly claim his coin, a wheatie to begin with, is ultra-rare because there are no other partial doubled-die 1955's like it. And what caused it? Oh, well, you know, the machine malfunctioned due to metal fatigue and was removed from service.

For the record, I got one... and promptly deleted it. There is little point in preaching to the clueless. I seriously doubt we will ever see a large-sized coin ever minted for circulation, but if we did a coelacanth, trilobite or wooly 🦣 mammoth would suit me just fine.