Out with the trash

As you might expect, some strange inquiries come my way. One of the stranger ones in the past month was from someone who claimed to have a copper-core 1943 cent.

I responded to the original e-mail inquiry to tell the owner that the coin was likely not a genuine error coin, but in any case would have to be submitted to a third-party grading service if a definitive answer was desired.

In my e-mail this morning was this response:

“Well, Dave, it appears we won’t have to worry about a story over the copper-cored 43 Steelie I had. You notice I use past tense. I spent the week of New Year’s going through most of my stuff and have come to the conclusion (without looking through another 2.5K of wheats) that I must have tossed it thinking since no one knew what is was, and didn’t seem interested in it, I might as well not bother with it and tossed it in the wastebasket.

“Besides, it was damaged so no one would have wanted it, and I doubt it would have had any value other than something to talk about.”

Since the writer signed his name and his location, I assume that this isn’t some sort of attempted joke on me, but the behavior described is certainly not something that I ordinarily run into.