gold-plated Ikes

[JKK]

I have four gold-plated Ikes someone else bought, apparently off a TV channel. My sense is that they are worth about $0.90 apiece, because when I look at them I have trouble even believing they are worth the face value of the original coin.

 

Is there even the faintest hint of a market for this sort of thing?

[Ted K-migration]

*e* to not sound off

 

I haven't been around for a long time, but pretty much every time I've seen something like this mentioned, signs point to you being spot on in your estimation. Most serious collectors won't get anywhere near something like this, and those that would be interested probably have already ordered them from the same place your friend got theirs. Might be able to get some of their money back through eBay, but the listing fees might make it not worth it.

[Zoins]

Most seem to sell for between $4 and $10 on eBay. At the low end, one sold for 99 cents and, at the high end, this bicentennial sold for $19.50.

 

Of course, most circulated Ikes are probably only worth $1 so even $4 is pretty good

[JKK]

Fair enough. Just wanted to make sure they didn't have some actual meaningful value before either giving them away or selling them.

[19Lyds]

The question I have is are they gold plated or gold annodized? I have 1 of each. The gold plated coin is a nice yellow that is starting to tone while the annodized coin looks gold at first but the color is really a brownish-yellow.

 

At any rate, there's not a market for these and since you're thinking 90 cents each I'll give ya $5.00 for all four!

[JKK]

Heh. Honestly, I don't know how to tell the manner in which the gold was placed on them. I took a look at them and I don't think the toning looks very goldy, so they're probably anodized. They're all bicentennials.

 

I bet I could unload them on Craigslist for like $10 each. That's what someone on Ebay wants for one. And if that doesn't work out, we are having a garage sale sometime this summer. I'll put them out one at a time for $10, see if they sell.

[Oldtrader3]

Because the are cupro-nickel they could be plated, not anodised. You can anodise (passivate) more reactive metals (or their alloys) like aluminum, magnesium and titanium. Anodising on cupro-nickel would not adhere and would flake off.

[JKK]

After consulting with my wife (since they were her father's, I think her views take precedence), we have agreed that we have as many of these as we have nieces and nephews--all his grandchildren. They mean nothing to me but an incomprehensible purchase; I'd rather remember my father-in-law by the twenty MS-6x Morgans than by five (it turns out) oddball coins.

 

The obvious solution is to give one to each young person, a real souvenir of their grandfather. Since they are all a couple of generations removed from inheriting their shares of his collection (if we don't buy those out, my brothers- and sisters-in-law willing), this will mean something to them all out of proportion to the $50 I could perhaps get for them selling them. Issue resolved.

[Ted K-migration]

Thanks for the update on these, this sounds like a really cool solution that the grandkids will probably appreciate quite a bit.

[michael]

Re: gold-plated Ikes..................

 

pimps, thugs and hustlers/whores

[bsshog40]

After consulting with my wife (since they were her father's, I think her views take precedence), we have agreed that we have as many of these as we have nieces and nephews--all his grandchildren. They mean nothing to me but an incomprehensible purchase; I'd rather remember my father-in-law by the twenty MS-6x Morgans than by five (it turns out) oddball coins.

 

The obvious solution is to give one to each young person, a real souvenir of their grandfather. Since they are all a couple of generations removed from inheriting their shares of his collection (if we don't buy those out, my brothers- and sisters-in-law willing), this will mean something to them all out of proportion to the $50 I could perhaps get for them selling them. Issue resolved.

 

I think that would be a very cool idea there JKK. I'm sure they will enjoy them very much!

[JKK]

Thanks again for the input, all (in both discussions). What I am really hoping for is a niece or nephew that takes a serious interest in collecting, because we have quite a few coins that really aren't worth a whole lot but would be very impressive to a young person simply because they're long past circulation. It wouldn't take very many Walkers and Morgans to bite them with the bug. When I was a child my great-grandma (passed on in 1978 aged 94) gave me four 1884 Morgans, her birth year. They're specially marked in the collection as family heirlooms, never to be sold even if the rest of it is liquidated after our death. That's what really got me started: the realization that these coins were minted the birth year of a Civil War vet's daughter, now grown ancient, a living link to the past. It's been thirty years and the concept still awes me.

[Conder101]

That's what really got me started: the realization that these coins were minted the birth year of a Civil War vet's daughter, now grown ancient, a living link to the past. It's been thirty years and the concept still awes me.

You want something really freaky? There are still widows of Civil War veterans living out there. (At least there was one still living in 2005)

[ldhair]

That's what really got me started: the realization that these coins were minted the birth year of a Civil War vet's daughter, now grown ancient, a living link to the past. It's been thirty years and the concept still awes me.

You want something really freaky? There are still widows of Civil War veterans living out there. (At least there was one still living in 2005)

She would be about 150?

[Zoins]

That's what really got me started: the realization that these coins were minted the birth year of a Civil War vet's daughter, now grown ancient, a living link to the past. It's been thirty years and the concept still awes me.

You want something really freaky? There are still widows of Civil War veterans living out there. (At least there was one still living in 2005)

She would be about 150?

If someone was 15 when the Civil War ended and married a 15 year old when he was 70 (in 1930), she'd be 92 today. Of course, that would be pretty freaky

[JKK]

Maybe instead of Anna Nicole we had Adna Nadine.

[Conder101]

The publicity surrounding Alberta Martin's death (Thought to be the last Confederate widow when she died in May 2004) prompted relatives of Maudie Celia Hopkins of Arkansas to reveal that the 89-year-old was in fact the last civil war widow. Hopkins married 86-year-old William Cantrell on Feb. 2, 1934, when she was 19. She did so to escape poverty, but kept quiet about the unusual marriage, “I thought people would gossip about it.” Cantrell, who served in the Virginia Infantry, supported her with his Confederate pension of “$25 every two or three months” until his death in 1937.

 

Hopkins has been recognized by the Daughters of the Confederacy as a Confederate Widow.

 

The last Union Widow died in Jan 2003.

 

1861-O half struck by the Confederacy (Die variety studies show this was one of the last two varieties struck in New Orleans before it was closed by the Confederacy.)

[rrantique]

Thanks Conder very interesting post.