So most of my friends in Pasadena know this story but it definitely is great enough to share with all my new friends in Elizabeth City.
2 summers ago I walked down to the bank to get some quarters for the laundry room at Fuller. I noticed immediately that I got a roll of brand new, shiny quarters....no biggie, though.
I got home tore into the plastic that was holding my quarters together and noticed something weird about one quarter in particular. The front looked normal a shiny strike of George Washington but the reverse side of the coin was where the action was at.
The reverse side of the coin was COPPER! No lie! I had never seen one before like this.
I kept the quarter and showed it to about everyone who visited me that week. I came moderately close to giving it away to my roommate's grandfather who stopped by and mentioned, "oh I collect coins just like these," with a definite tone of hint-hint in his voice.
I refrained and thank God I did. I went online and researched other coins like mine. Some dealers were selling quarters with a "layer" missing for $350!! Turns out there is a piece of copper sandwiched between two pieces of silver-like metal to make every quarter. Interesting...
I took my quarter to a local dealer to get it appraised. The dealer was pretty excited about seeing a brand new, uncirculated Washington state quarter with this mint defect. Unfortunately, he was unable to specify with certainty that it was uncirculated so we had to send it back to the mint in Denver to get it appraised by the mint itself, which actually cost $70!!
I was thinking, "this thing better pay itself off!" Oh it did! I got the quarter back a few weeks later, encased in a nice plastic, retangular case with a hologram seal from the mint on the front. Immediately the dealer went into his little song-and-dance.
He told me, "you know, with this grading I don't think you'll get any more than $300-350 for it. Wanna sell it to me today and not worry about advertising for it?"
I actually thought about it for more than a second...but probably only 2 seconds. I told him, "no thanks."
The dealer didn't stop there because he asked, "well could I, at least, help you take pictures of the coin?"
I asked, "how much?" He said, "only $30." I smiled while I replayed his "only $30" in my head, thinking it was ridiculous! I instantly remembered that a friend of mine right across the street was a photographer in the making.
I left that place soon after and didn't waste any time in asking Matthew (his website is matthewcline.net, btw) to take some shots, which he did graciously and FREE OF CHARGE!!
The next day I put the quarter on Ebay with the starting bid for $200. The next day I got an email from Ebay with an offer from a buyer for $1000!!! I told him that I would wait and see how the auction progressed and that I would get back to him.
That evening I got another email from another buyer who offered $1100!!! I told that person the same thing, knowing that I could get some leverage and get a private auction between these two loaded creatures:)
I emailed them back and forth and finally got a selling price of $1250! Glad pops nor the dealer got the better of me:)
I discovered that out of the hundreds of millions of quarters in the USA, there are only approximately 250 like the one I sold!
So, you might ask, "what did you do with the money?" Ehhh...nothing too exciting actually. I paid my car insurance up for 6 months, my rent for 2 months, went out for sushi and bought an Ipod. It was a good week:)
There's my little, non-monotonous story:) Hope you enjoyed it!
Check out the quarter here --> http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=38272159&albumID=215414&imageID=12765359
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