OT-An expensive vote!

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Posted By: Bruce Babcock

I heard a story on the news that someone in Florida who voted by absentee ballot in Tuesday's election used an inverted jenny stamp, among others, to mail in their ballot. About 100 of these stamps are known to exist. The stamp, if it is in fact real, could be worth $150,000 to over $500,000 depending on condition. The ballot did not count because the voter had not followed proper identification procedures so there is no way to return the stamp to the rightful owner.

A link to the story:

http://rc.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-cstamp09nov09,0,6885058.story?coll=sfla-news-broward

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Posted By: Steve M.

that sold for $2.9 million referred to in the piece.

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Posted By: barrysloate

The collector who purchased that block was within one stamp of having a complete set of American stamps- the last one he was missing was unique in private hands. After he purchased the block he traded it for that one-cent "Z" grill stamp and thus became the first person to have every U.S. stamp ever issued.

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Posted By: Steve M.

Z Grill



Or is this it?

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Posted By: scott brockelman

I know Barry had a great U.S. collection he sold a couple of years back. As a teenager I had a tremedous U.S. collection that Steve Ivy sold about 1985(took a beating) commems were complete unused less the $5 columbian and $2 trans miss., regular issues lacked many grills and a couple of 90 cent issues. Since then I have reassembled a pretty decent collection again, need quite a few grills and some misc early reg issues. probably at 98% complete up to 1930's. using an old Scott's album so I don't go any further.

Scott

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Posted By: Steve M.

but my Dad does. He's 86 and has been collecting since he was a kid so you might imagine the extent of his collection. I'm pretty sure that's where I got my collecting bug: stamps, coins, cards, etc., etc.

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Posted By: barrysloate

Yes- I did sell my collection on ebay last year- I had Columbians mint to the $5 and most of the early issues and pretty much all of the collectible grills, but it was impossible for me to determine how many points the grills had and exactly which ones they were. Also, the imperceptible differences on stamps like Scott #5-9 (the #5 is a great rarity) made it really frustrating. For those who have never collected 19th century American stamps, the various printing differences on certain stamps are so hard to identify that it is close to impossible. A "Shappe" variation is a piece a cake next to 1850's-60's stamps. That alone frustrated me as a collector.

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Posted By: scott brockelman

yes, those are a bear to id, especially if they don;t have much for margins, I had a couple of mine sent it APS for certs and they came back 100% what i had them marked as. Made for a happy camper.

Scott

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Posted By: barrysloate

Scott- that's exactly it. All of the minute variations appear at the margins and if they are cut too close (these are imperforate stamps that had to be cut with a scissor) you could have a #5 and it would look like a common #7 or #9. And even if the margins are big it is still so tough. Then there are the color shades, and you have to see if the grill points are 13 x 15 or 12 x 16- and the grills are so tiny they are nearly impossible to count (grills are embossed onto the stamp to help soak up the ink from the cancellation. People tried to erase the ink to reuse the stamps and the grills would make that virtually impossible). In the end I couldn't tell one from the other and that took a great deal of the fun out of it.

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Posted By: MINE'S MINT

well this thread isnt completely off topic, because this same scenario plays out in the baseball related movie "Brewster's Millions" starring Richard Pryor..



psa/dna authenticated signature -> Richard M.

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Posted By: barrysloate

According to today's NY Times, the upside down jenny on the ballot was a reproduction. It seemed incredible to me that someone could have one of these just lying around waiting to be used for postage. That's like going to the supermarket for a quart of milk and paying for it with an 1804 silver dollar. Just wouldn't happen.

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Posted By: damian

This has horse@#$% all over it!

We all know the Post Office would have returned it to sender postage due

Disgruntled Postal Worker
Damian

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Posted By: howard

The letter was just late. The sender wanted to vote for Calvin Coolidge.

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Posted By: Bob C

When I was in college in LA in the early 80’s I was on line at a Ralph’s grocery store buying beer and pretzels or some other daily needs of a young college student. An elderly lady in front of me paid for her purchase with cash. I noticed she had a large “wad” and looking closer could not miss the unmistakable blue ink on the bills, meaning silver certificates! When it was my turn to check out, I asked the checker if I could exchange some of my bills for the bills the lady had given her. She was clueless (but suspicious) and did exchange $10 for 10 $1’s. Being a starving student that was all I could afford. They were not mint – wrinkled but still crisp – Series 1957A, and I still have them today. I did try to find the lady in the parking lot afterward but she was gone. I wonder even until this day if she was spending a hoard of cash she saved over the years, or something more untoward like the take from a bank robbery her dead husband had left her. True story. These things do happen!

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Posted By: scott brockelman

in 1977 when I was freshman in college. where we cashed checks at the student union, they were giving all the cash back in $5 silver certificates. I must have cashed 5 $20 checks(the max) within 1 hour. But, as it turned out they weren't that vaulable and a few years later sold em for a few bucks over face.

Scott

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Posted By: barrysloate

I pulled a really interesting coin out of change recently. I always put wheat ear pennies aside. They have no real value, and most are from the 40's and 50's but I do it as force of habit. But I found an old looking one a couple of months ago and I checked the date and it was 1909, the first year of issue! No "s" and no "V.D.B." but still, how did a penny from 1909 remain in circulation until 2006?

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Posted By: Joann

Wow. I haven't spent a wheat penny in probably 35+ years - I always have saved them. But I don't think I've seen one in the last 10 or 15 years. Not that I can remember anyways - it's been a long time. Amazing that penny could get used for 97 years and no one ever set it aside.

Joann

Edited so as not to look like a math moron.

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Posted By: barrysloate

I'm guessing that the 1909 penny was out of circulation for awhile and then somebody accidentally put it back in. How could I be the only person in the last 50 years to notice the date?

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Posted By: jay behrens

I puilled a 1911 wheat penny a few months ago. Waw in pretty god shape still with lines in the wheat still visible. Most of the time, old coins like this end up back in circulation because a grandkid has robbed the grandparents stash of old coins. Another interesting item I got in change a few years back was a $20 gold certificate.

Jay

I love pinatas. You get to beat the crap of something and get rewarded with candy.

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Posted By: barrysloate

Jay- you are right that these old coins may have been put back in circulation by kids- but you really found a gold certificate? That gold seal is so obvious that it's hard to imagine nobody else saw it. Those became obsolete in 1933 when we went off the gold standard.

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Posted By: howard

I think that the change counting machines that are now all over the place in banks, malls, supermarkets, etc. are getting a lot of these pennies back in circulation. It makes it easy for the people who suddenly awaken to the insanity of keeping thousands and thousands of pennies in jars around their homes.

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Posted By: MVSNYC

what wheat back pennys (years?) are rare and valuable? i have a ton of them, that my dad has saved...

MS

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Posted By: Peter Thomas

Everyone likes quarters - make them $1.00 and the dollar coin problem goes away. Nobody likes half dollars - make them $2.00 and they will be OK. People like dimes - make them $.50 and they will be loved. People don't care for nickels - make them $.25 and they also will be OK. Make the penny worth a dime and they will leap out of jars. Round all prices to the nearest $.10 and coinage problem will be over for our lifetime. Way to simple a solution for government to deal with.

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Posted By: jay behrens

When I was a GM for McDonalds, I used to check all the currency and coins that came thru. I rountinely found Silver certificates and lots of silver coins. The best finds were the gold cert, an Indian head penny and rare $2 from 1914, I think. I that may not be the right year but I sold for a couple hundred dollars. I still have to gold cert sitting around somewhere.

Jay

I love pinatas. You get to beat the crap of something and get rewarded with candy.

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Posted By: Jerry

Speaking of Coins, when I retired a couple years ago, I started metal detecting for relaxation. It's pretty neat to dig up 100+ yr old coins that somebody dropped when harry Wright was managing the Red legs.
It's a fun hobby for an old man.

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Posted By: barrysloate

Jerry- that's a pretty cool find- a Seated Half, two Seated dimes, two Barber quarters, and three Barber dimes. The half dollar is the best of the bunch.

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Posted By: Jerry

It's alot of fun, I found the 1875 Seated half at an old ghost town, one school house site not 5 miles from my house. Research pays off. Here's my 2 walkers so far.