The December 17th issue of CoinWorld features an article about four(4) recently discovered 1852-C mint state coins that are to be auctioned off by Gulfcoast Coin & Jewelry Brokers, Fort Myers, Fla. on December 16th.

According to the CW article, the coins were passed down though the consignors family and had been stored away in a private vault since the 1930’s. The consigner recounted having gotten the coins “appraised up North by some hotel guy for $200″, and then again by another “hotel appraiser” in south Florida who also offered about $200.

However when the consigner brought the coins into Dealer Mike Joyce of Gulfcoast Coin, he received an honest appraisal of the coins which were eventually sent off to NGC for grading.

The four coins came back from NGC with two graded MS-63 and two graded MS-64. I am sure the owner was quite pleased with the outcome.

This story is interesting on several levels:

1. It is always amazing to me how often we hear about “non collectors” showing up at a dealers door with great fresh material that has just been collecting dust in a drawer or deposit box for years. The 1854-S quarter eagle comes to mind as a recent example. In any case it is always interesting to see new coins hit the market from the most unexpected sources.

2. This story is also educational for anyone who is lucky enough to posses a valuable coin but has no clue as to its rarity and condition. The owner of these four Charlotte golds coins had brought them to two separate “hotel appraisers” and been offered little over melt for them. What does that tell you?

These so-called hotel appraisal services, moving across the US from city to city buying up gold, jewelry and the like would certainly seem top be the LAST place you would want to bring valuables to be appraised, much less sell to them.

Yes these companies do perform a service, and I am sure that some are very honest and diligent in offering honest appraisals and a fair amount to purchase these items. On the other hand, many are no better than scam artists ripping off people who have little or no knowledge about what they have much less what it is worth. The lesson here is take your valuables to reputable dealers, and don’t sell anything until you know exactly what it is you have, and what a fair value for it should be.

3. Finally a quick note on the upcoming auction itself. We went over to Ebay Live to look at the for 1852-C coins being offered, and was surprised to see that in addition to the 4 examples mentioned in the Coin World Article (NGC Cert number 3060122-001 to 004) there were two additional Mint State 63 1852-C $5 coins being offered as well.

It struck me as odd that anyone would offer not just 4 but a total of 6 examples of this rare date half eagle in the same sale as consecutive lots.

In any case all six coins will hit the block on December 16th and for those interested in rare date gold and Charlotte gold in particular, this will be an opportunity to pick up some “fresh” material.

Congratulations to the consigner and kudos to Dealer Mike Joyce.