Eureka! Part of my old collection recovered

[shirohniichan]

My oldest brother called me yesterday to tell me he found a box of coins and asked if they were mine. His ex-wife is selling her (formerly his) house and asked him to clean his junk out of the attic. Along with boxes of old bills, tax records, receipts, etc., he found a box containing a number of Whitman folders and a plastic drawer organizer.

 

What he found was part of my coin collection from the early 1970's through 1984. Nothing in the collection is worth very much, but the nostalgia value is huge. It went in to my brother's attic when my parents moved to Hawaii in 1991, and I hadn't seen it since I moved to Japan in 1990. Here are the highlights:

 

- 1864-S half dollar, AU details; cleaned with a test mark drilled in the O of "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" on the reverse. I have an 1859-S silver dollar with the same kind of test mark in the same place, and I've seen drill holes on a number of trade dollars like this. I figure these are test marks to show the coin wasn't a plated counterfeit. While I'd like to think it is a Chinese test mark (since most chopmarked seated half dollars I've seen have been San Francisco issues), there's no way to tell for sure. I'll rainbow tone it by rolling it in toilet paper or a Del Taco napkin and put it face up in my daughter's type folder.

 

- Silver centennial medal from my home town. It's probably only worth melt value, but its sentimental value is quite high for me. I still live in my home town, after all.

 

- Mint medals. There's even the souvenir medal I struck on the press at the Old San Francisco Mint back in the late 70's. You used to be able to buy blank planchets and take them to the press operator. He'd set it up and hand you a button to push to strike the coin. At the time I wanted to see if I could sneak in a different planchet. When I visited DC in 1980 I saw a similar arrangement to strike Whitehouse medals in pewter, but the press was out of order. I wanted to see if I could buy a pewter planchet and take it to the Old Mint in San Francisco to make a unique strike, but I never did.

 

- An unc roll of 1972-S cents. Are there any varieties I should look for?

 

- British Columbia trade dollars. I took my last trip to my grandparents' old house in the boonies of British Columbia in 1981, and while there that summer bought a number of "trade dollars" at the co-op in town. They were nickel trade tokens that could be used at participating merchants until the end of the summer in the year of issue. I thought they looked so cool I bought a number of them realizing they'd never have much collector value. The Yellowhead Highway series of 1981 had a number of First Nations on them. There's no way to estimate the sentimental value of these tokens. At one time I looked around to find replacements for them, but I never found a seller.

 

Has anyone else found a collection from his childhood? Did it contain anything of more than sentimental value?

[jgrinz]

Thats fun ... Unfortunately that will never happen to me

Mine are long gone

[bsshog40]

Congrats on that!! I bet that happens to very few people!

[dooly]

 

- An unc roll of 1972-S cents. Are there any varieties I should look for?

 

Nice finds there !!!!!!!

 

Yes for the 1972-s

 

Cherrypicker

Doubled Die Obverse (1-0-1)

Doubling is evident on all the letters of LIBBERTY, IN GOD WE TRUST, and date. the strength of the doubling is stronger close to the rim, and is half of the vertical letter bar width on IN GOD WE TRUST

 

Although not as strong as some other DD, this variety is highly collectible

URS-7

PF-63 - $450 (2001)

 

all the best dooly

[jackson64]

the double BB in liberty is also a dead giveaway.. ......

[Just Bob]

the double BB in liberty is also a dead giveaway.. ......

 

[jgrinz]

the double BB in liberty is also a dead giveaway.. ......

 

COMMON dats dooley speak

[dooly]

HaHA! thanks you lot !

 

by the way its dooly not dooley J man

[shirohniichan]

Going through the collection last night brought back the sins of my youth. My 1909-1940 Lincoln cent folder had a number of orange coins in it. I remember when I was about 7 years old taking copper cleaner and a brush to the dark ones to make them look all nice and purdy (rubbing the skin off my fingers in the process). Some of the Mercury and Roosevelt dimes suffered through my discovery of silver polish.

 

Another thing I discovered is that the green death got a number of my coins. I have rolls of common Wheat and Memorial cents that were stored in the soft plastic tubes that have grown green spots all over. I guess they're going into my daughter's stretched penny collection as I use them on our vacations.

 

The nicest surprise was finding a number of world coins I remember buying years ago. Some even had the original Littleton envelopes (D'OH!). The coolest finds last night were my 1862 K French 2 centimes and a 1915 Pan Pac "California Souvenir Penny" (a bronze token about 40 mm large with an Indian in full head dress on the obverse).

[physics-fan3.14]

- An unc roll of 1972-S cents. Are there any varieties I should look for?

 

Nice finds there !!!!!!!

 

Yes for the 1972-s

 

Cherrypicker

Doubled Die Obverse (1-0-1)

Doubling is evident on all the letters of LIBBERTY, IN GOD WE TRUST, and date. the strength of the doubling is stronger close to the rim, and is half of the vertical letter bar width on IN GOD WE TRUST

 

Although not as strong as some other DD, this variety is highly collectible

URS-7

PF-63 - $450 (2001)

 

all the best dooly

 

He's not going to find a Proof DD in an UNC roll. At least, the odds are highly unlikely.