Coin hoarders

[treefrog]

I picked up a lot of sixpence yesterday in Derby, which sold on eBay, was not a small lot either which some of you would have seen. Not sure I needed this many, but worked out around 11500 of them, so around 31kg.......

The seller got them in a house clearance, jars and jars of them.

In 1967 that would have been around £275 worth of coins, but with inflation at say 2%, that is around £4000 today.....of course I paid no where near that. The question is why do people do this.. these were legal currency right into the mid to late '70s.

I have a close friend whose father did the same, use to hoard the commemorative crowns that were issued....when he died about 4 years ago, there was litterly around a tonne of sacks of coins stored (over a hundred sacks). They were still legal tender at 25 p each, but the loss in their value as you can imagine was significant. He took most to the bank and cashed them in face value...

If you're going to hoard, at least do it with something that appreciates.....

[badpenny]

I once saw an advert in AD-Mag many years ago for a tea chest full of old pennies.
When I got round there they'd tried to move it and it had split.
So they'd called the local scrap dealer who was there with a shovel loading them into the back of his Transit Tipper, he only charged them a fiver and they were thrilled to see the back of them.

[downunda]

Never having the need to find out before, could you not cash them in at a bank?

[coppinpr]

Old banknotes can always be exchanged for face value at any bank or by post to the bank of England. Coins are different because the bank of England strangely doesn't control coins in the UK. The Royal mint does, so banks usually won't take them, however a few banks offer the service as a courtesy rather than an obligation giving equivalent value (1.25p for a 3d coin(?)) The bank has to then send them to the Royal mint (who reimburse the bank) to be melted down.

Not exactly hording but I once did a garage clearance and found an old valve radio, I took it home to see if I could get it to work and found it was stuffed with unopened pension packets, dozens of them! Before you ask, I gave them back to the deceased garage owner's daughter.

[larry_d]

Not the same thing, but after my Mum died, I was clearing her house and her bedside table had a wobbly leg that for twenty years had been wedged with a folded ten bob note. Bit of a character my Mum was.

[jingle]

I picked up a lot of sixpence yesterday in Derby...

Have you checked the dates tom
Anything up to 1919 is pure silver
1919 to 1947 are half silver
Money soon adds up when you have a lot

[aristomatic]

One of my best parcel of machines came from the son of an old operator who was in the process of having the family house remodelled as his mum was being moved into a retirement home, his father having having died some years earlier. The builders as they made their way through the house found bags and bags of sixpences stored under every floor and in every concealed area of the house. It seems the old guy had removed every silver or 50% pre 47 from his weekly cash up and hoarded them away in the house, just banking all the post silver ones.

I was lucky enough to have the opportunity of buying a number of slots and Wrigleys gum machines and part machines that had been stored away in the double garage. I thought that was a great haul however he told me that when his father had died years previously, he had sold three lockups full of machines!

GP

[madmickshere]

Here's another use > http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blo ... nny-floor/

[coppinpr]

If you're going to hoard, at least do it with something that appreciates....

If you were a true "horder" that wouldn't help you (although it might help whoever inherited your hoard) as the definition of a hoarder is someone who accumulates large amounts of items and is then unable (or at least unwilling) to part with them, thus whether it appreciated or not wouldn't matter.

Someone who, let's say, accumulated 40 slot machines all the same type (as if anyone would ) that appreciated in value with the intention of selling them on later in life would be an "investor", not a "hoarder".