The Legend of the Mother Load & the Story of the 1951-S Washington Triplets

[TomB]

Long-winded with lots of images!!!

 

Okay, you have all been warned. This thread is being written now because of the new camera I have in-hand and I expect that I should share as many images as I can before someone comes here and breaks the darn thing so that I stop posting.

 

As many of you know, I have been heavily into superbly toned coinage for many years. Luckily for me, I was able to get into this niche market about two years before it started to explode, otherwise I would not own a fraction of the pieces that I currently have.

 

I started to seriously get interested in the slightly available, superbly toned coinage I would see about 1997. During this time you could pickoff the ocassional awesome coin without paying very much and you could find quite a few simply attractive pieces sprinkled throughout shows. My first toned coin purchase was a 1955-S Roosevelt that had a terrific crescent of red, orange and green just in front of the portrait. It also had good, chalky patina throughout. I thought long and hard about spluging on this coin. As it turns out it was all of $9 and I still have it.

 

The fall Baltimore show was coming up in 1998 and I could not make it. I really wanted to go but had too much work to do in the hospital. Around 10:00 PM on that Friday night I called a friend of mine to tell him that I would try to make it down to the show that night. This call was made from the hospital in Providence, RI so we are talking about a long trip and late night. He told me he was glad I called since a major toned coin hoard just came up and I should see it.

 

He gave me directions to a supermarket in rural PA and told me he would meet me there. From the market I would follow him to the dealer's house to view the coins. It was late and very cold as I waited in the parking lot for my friend. He showed up, I followed and we eventually made it to the house after winding through unlit mountain roads for 30 minutes.

 

What was inside the house was amazing; it wasn't one or two nicely toned coins, but a single-row box of generally terrific, and sometimes amazing, coins. We went through the pieces coin-by-coin while laughing the entire time. Part of the laughing was no doubt from a lack of sleep as it was after 3:00 AM at this time, but the rest of it was from the incredible coins we were plucking out.

 

All the coins were in old Kointains inside of yellowed 2x2 holders with tags that were grossly undergraded. The coins sparkled. I was looking through some Roosevelts and my friend had some Washingtons and we just kept passing them back and forth saying "Look at this!" as if we had found the most beautiful coin in the world. The collection contained 61 coins with a few each Jefferson nickels, Mercury dimes, Franklin halves and JFK halves while the bulk of it was split between Roosevelt dimes and Washington quarters. By the time I had seen all the coins I was absolutely exhausted and I fell asleep on the couch.

 

About two hours later we got up to go to the show, jumped into a car and went to a local diner. While there, we talked about the coins. The topic came up as to what they were worth and I chimed in that I was interested in buying some. During the two hours that I tried to sleep all I could think of was how much these coins would cost and which ones I should be aggressive about purchasing.

 

The dealer looked at me and said we should talk about the price of the coins that I might buy as we drove to the show. Inside the car, I was pouring through this box and wondering how I would disqualify pieces from the group. I finally asked what was the cost of each piece. A large sigh went out from the owner since he would have to price each piece in the car as the group of us drove to Baltimore. He fumbled through Greysheet issues and finally asked me to list the coins I was interested in.

 

Somewhat to my surprise I blurted out-

 

"All of them!"

 

There was silence in the car, he told me what he had paid the day before for the lot and asked if it were okay if he made $50 on the group. I readily agreed and took the box into my possession. As an example of what I paid, I designated each Washington quarter to have cost me $15.

 

I could hardly think of anything besides that box of color waiting for me after the show. As for the show itself, I think I bought one coin for less than $100 on the bourse. The important thing was that I had that toned stash in-hands.

 

Over the years some of the coins have been certified and kept, others certified and sold and a few have been sold raw. I still own the great majority of the hoard. As an example of the quality, I submitted a small number of quarters to PCGS as a test submission and all three 1951-S Washingtons came back in MS67 holders. This may not seem impressive these days with the larger populations of this series. However, at the time it was quite an accomplishment to get an MS67 on a Washington from PCGS and I believe the population of this date went from six coins to nine coins from my trio.

 

This trio of Washington quarters is what I have called the triplets since the toning on them is so similar and since they went to PCGS one time, received the MS67 grade each and are in consecutively numbered holders. In truth, they are not identical triplets, but they are fraternal triplets. Each coin has a frosty, mossy luster that shines from steely surfaces that are remarkably free of hits and marks. The strikes are well above average and the toning has some superb coloration. Although these images are much better than anything I ever had of these coins previously, they are still not as nice as the coins in-hand. The coins are shown below as you scroll down the page.

 

Has anyone else had a similar experience? Please tell!

[truthteller]

As they say on the PCGS forums, YOU SUCK!

 

Those are some of the most outrageous Washingtons quarters I have seen. While I don't have quite as nice a story, I have been fortunate to be first in line over the years in a few color commem deals, not often, but enough times to make me happy.

 

 

TRUTH

[supertooth]

Tom B------What an excellent time for these threads of yours. Glad you got the camera thing going. Maybe one day my wife and I will get better with the pictures too. Anyway, what a nice story and the "color" is outstanding. It is wonderful to see that there are still those who appreciate the coins themselves. This is proven by the fact that you say that you still have "most" of them. Congrats on a fine set of coins. Bob [supertooth]

[toyonakataro]

Great pictures and stories. I'm glad you bought a new camera so that we can enjoy your collections

 

I also have a few pretty Washingtons...none of them are pretty as yours, but I love them. I think toned Washingtons are cool

[jom]

Great coins....even if they are Washington quarters.

 

jom

[LucyBop]

excellent post!

 

Thanks for sharing it, Tom!

[AlixTCat]

Tom,

 

Really nice coins and the story to go with them is great. You should print it out and keep it with the coins in case you ever pass on. Whomever gets them next should have the story to go with them.

 

Thanks for posting.

 

Jonathan

[bigmoose-migration]

Tom, the story of the "hoard" sounds even better when you tell it in person.

[Hoot]

I thought long and hard about spluging on this coin.

 

This is the most disturbing part of this story. I thought that only EVP did the "Demi" with his coins.

 

Hoot

[BankNote1]

I must confess I didn't read your post. The photos are great! Makes you wonder what the rest of those mint sets coins looked like... Just super...

[HaydenTubbs]

Wow!That's quite a story Tom!

I'll be happy to take them off your hands

[nwcs]

I'm in a bit of a hurry but those are great coins!

[Bruceswar]

Thats one hell of a story congrats...

[TomB]

Thank you all for the kind words about the coins.

 

AlixTCat, I actually have each remaining coin from this hoard marked in my inventory so that they are tracked and can largely stay together for as long as possible.

 

A really odd thing is that there were quite a few dealers who thought I overpaid at $15 per quarter, especially since I then paid to have them certified! Again, this was in late 1998 and the toning premium was much less aggressive than it is today. One dealer, who is a really good guy and has a great reputation, told me several years later that he had thought I was stupid for buying the hoard as they were "only Washingtons and Roosevelts!"

 

Anyway, thanks again all, and I have plenty more images that will wait a little while before being posted.

 

Hoot Must Die!!!

[Hoot]

Thank you all for remaining in my inventory and largely odd. I overpaid , especially since I was much less aggressive than One dealer, who is stupid as Roosevelt!

 

Hoot Must Die!!!

 

 

Hoot

[TomB]

 

Watch out, I've got lots more images of toned Washingtons for you.

[SilverDollarMan]

Good read, nice washinton's