Scotty,
Have you read this yet? Regards, Shawn
Coin Collection Considered Jack Pot
By DAVID TIRRELL-WYSOCKI
LITTLETON, N.H. (AP) -- Most people feel great when
they finally fill that old jelly jar with coins, take
it to the bank and find out they have accumulated a
couple of hundred nickels, dimes or quarters.
Multiply that amount by about 8,000, and you might get an
idea how David Sundman feels. He is president of Littleton
Coin Co., and has just bought what is being described as
the largest known hoard of American coins: more than 1.7
million Indian Head cents, Liberty Head nickels and Buffalo
nickels, some worth hundreds of dollars apiece.
It may be the last collection of that size to be found in
the country.
''We'll never, I don't think, see anything like this again,''
Sundman said.''Usually stories get bigger and get repeated,
and I've never heard anybody talk about anything even half
this size. A third this size would be a big deal.''
The coins, mostly from the 19th century, were collected by a
resident of the Midwest, who doesn't want his name or even
the state he lives in known.
He kept them in canvas bags and 55-gallon drums, hidden
behind the walls of his house. Littleton bought several
hundred bags through an agent and they have been gradually
arriving at the company.
Each bag holds 4,000 to 5,000 coins, Sundman said. And each
coin is a piece of American history.
The Indian Head cents are dated 1880-1909 and have been
out of circulation since the 1950s. The Liberty Head nickels
are dated 1883-1912 and also have been off the street since
the '50s, and the Buffalo nickels, dated 1913 to 1938, have
been gone since the '60s, Sundman said.
Sundman said his company paid several million dollars for
the hoard, and he expects to be able to sell the coins, one
at a time, for as much as $7 million.
With nowhere else in the building to store such a huge
hoard, the bags are stashed in Sundman's office in a pile
about six feet tall, four feet deep and three feet wide. The
hoard weighs 7.6 tons, and if placed end to end, the coins
would stretch nearly 22 miles.
One by one, the coins are being counted, sorted by year
and mint marks and graded according to their condition.
Sorters and graders also look for rarities, and already
have found a 3 1/2-legged 1936 Buffalo nickel worth
$475 and a three-legged 1937 Buffalo nickel worth about $375.
The sorting is expected to take a year, Sundman said. Then
the coins will be added to the company's catalogs sent to
collectors all over the world.
According to the 1997 book, American Coin Treasures and
Hoards, this hoard surpasses the previous record-size find
by a long shot. The previous record was set in the 1950s
when 1 million 1950 nickels were accumulated by a Texas
collector, author Q. David Bowers wrote.
''You never believe it until you get it and own it; then
it's real,'' Sundman said. ''Now, it's real.'' |
