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I have 2.

When I was a boy, my uncle would come to our house to visit, and would pull out stuff to show my father that he'd bought to either keep, or flip. Watches and things come to mind, but I also remember hearing them talk about "cougarands" (that's how I'd hear them say it, anyway- I know that's not the right spelling). I remember seeing maybe one around that time, but haven't seen them since. I think my uncle also had a belt buckle with some of them in it!

So now, flash forward to 2023- years ago, my mother passed a horde of coins to me that had belonged to my godmother and my grandfather. There was a peace dollar in there, some Mercury Dimes, and some other neat old coins. I still have them (she gave them to me around 2008, if I had to recall). With them was also an old card with my godmother's handwriting on it..

I don't know if I noticed this at the time or not, but I just recently came across the card again, and on it is a list of different coins that were to go to my mother around 1983. On the list, there is a line item that reads "5.00 gold coin". I just noticed this at the beginning of this week, so I texted my father, and sent pics of the card with the info on it. I have not yet gotten a reply about the coin, lol. I'm wondering if:

1. I wasn't supposed to see that
2. it was used to pay bills at some point and is now gone
3. it's now lost and they don't know how to tell me (they are older)

What ever the case may be, I just hope it has not gone lost. Aside from my own Au acquisitions (based on training from the crew here), I know of no other gold in my family like that.

My story is about the family dentist.

He had a bucket in his office and would throw dental fillings in the bucket. Some of them were gold fillings. He said he separated the gold fillings from the others and sold them for either $10k or $20k. This was at least 30 years ago when that money was worth a lot more than it is now.

Most people in my family were hard workers, but mostly poor and not educated in real money. I'm the first one in my entire family to accumulate PMs as a store of wealth.

Cu Penny Hoarder wrote:Most people in my family were hard workers, but mostly poor and not educated in real money. I'm the first one in my entire family to accumulate PMs as a store of wealth.

Very nice!

Recyclersteve wrote:My story is about the family dentist.

He had a bucket in his office and would throw dental fillings in the bucket. Some of them were gold fillings. He said he separated the gold fillings from the others and sold them for either $10k or $20k. This was at least 30 years ago when that money was worth a lot more than it is now.

Both ew and wow at the same time!

Wow nobody else? You guys are tough to get talking.

My parents' gold jewelry ended up in my possession after they passed (class rings, wedding bands, etc, maybe six pieces all together, 10K-14K) and I don't know what to do with them. Too sentimental to sell, siblings would simply cash them in, my nieces and nephews barely knew them so I doubt they'd appreciate them. I guess they'll just sit where they have been for the last ten years.

In the coin dept (Dad was the collector) the closest thing he got to gold were those novelty "California Gold" fractional tokens. Still have some in their original 2x2's that he bought in the early 1970s.

coindood wrote:My parents' gold jewelry ended up in my possession after they passed (class rings, wedding bands, etc, maybe six pieces all together, 10K-14K) and I don't know what to do with them. Too sentimental to sell, siblings would simply cash them in, my nieces and nephews barely knew them so I doubt they'd appreciate them. I guess they'll just sit where they have been for the last ten years.

In the coin dept (Dad was the collector) the closest thing he got to gold were those novelty "California Gold" fractional tokens. Still have some in their original 2x2's that he bought in the early 1970s.

Thank you sharing that. Sounds like you can see why the family items went to you

My father was the "collector" and had the means to buy just about anything he desired. I joined the Navy (1972) and left home to travel the world. Going to countries like Bahrain, Thailand, etc opened my eyes to the wonders of gold.
I would write back to my father asking him if he was interested in gold as shops sold it by weight at market prices. It was cheap back then (late 70's early 80's). His reply was , "Nope, not interested in that stuff".
Come to find out, he was addicted to the junk the US Mint pushed on unsuspecting victims. Upon his passing he had hundreds and hundreds of Mint sets and Proof sets and other manufactured commercial stuff.
If only he had put all the money wasted on US Mint junk into gold, he would have had a small fortune.

Christmas 10 years ago,
I opened a 1986 US mint 3 coin set,
as a gift from my daughter & son-in -law.
I looked at it, then went directly to my computer,
to verify what i believed.
It was a clad half dollar, a silver dollar, and a $5 gold coin.
I told the kids that this was WAY too much for a gift, about $500
and gave them $300 towards it.

Best part of the story;
They tried to sell it at a garage sale for $1.50.
No takers

ScrapMetal wrote:My father was the "collector" and had the means to buy just about anything he desired. I joined the Navy (1972) and left home to travel the world. Going to countries like Bahrain, Thailand, etc opened my eyes to the wonders of gold.
I would write back to my father asking him if he was interested in gold as shops sold it by weight at market prices. It was cheap back then (late 70's early 80's). His reply was , "Nope, not interested in that stuff".
Come to find out, he was addicted to the junk the US Mint pushed on unsuspecting victims. Upon his passing he had hundreds and hundreds of Mint sets and Proof sets and other manufactured commercial stuff.
If only he had put all the money wasted on US Mint junk into gold, he would have had a small fortune.

My grandfather was the same way re: mint sets.

justoneguy wrote:Christmas 10 years ago,
I opened a 1986 US mint 3 coin set,
as a gift from my daughter & son-in -law.
I looked at it, then went directly to my computer,
to verify what i believed.
It was a clad half dollar, a silver dollar, and a $5 gold coin.
I told the kids that this was WAY too much for a gift, about $500
and gave them $300 towards it.

Best part of the story;
They tried to sell it at a garage sale for $1.50.
No takers

Today's civilian has no clue!! They use Venmo!

My son and I were out in the Arizona desert, prospecting. Other than some fine gold dust, and the joy of spending a day with my little dude (he was about 8 years old at the time), it had largely been a skunk day. We decided to call it and head on back home… only one problem. The truck wouldn’t start.

We were able to wander a bit to find a decent cell signal, and call my Dad to come rescue us. It was going to take about 3-4 hours, and doing a bit more prospecting seemed a good option to pass the time. I didn’t want to get the drywasher set up again (and had finished coughing up dirt clods), so we decided to pass the time doing some old-school dry dirt panning.

Took the concentrates home, and panned through them the next day. I had kept the concentrates from the dirt panning separate as I figured if there was any gold dust in there, it’d be cool to put it in its own vial for my son (to commemorate our stranded adventure in the desert).

Ended up with the biggest picker (a beautiful rose color) from all of my adventures.

Gotta love that!!

My family gold story is more of what if. My great grandfather had a gold mine/claim near Placerville CA in the 1950’s and 1960’s. From what I’ve been told by family is that the gold claim had to be sold because each year a minimum dollar amount had to be spent on the mine (dynamite etc). Fast forward a few decades and I wish the family gold mine was still around, I would go out to gold country and try my hand at prospecting.

Is it still a "mine" today? Any chance of buying it back, maybe?

hirbonzig wrote:My family gold story is more of what if. My great grandfather had a gold mine/claim near Placerville CA in the 1950’s and 1960’s. From what I’ve been told by family is that the gold claim had to be sold because each year a minimum dollar amount had to be spent on the mine (dynamite etc). Fast forward a few decades and I wish the family gold mine was still around, I would go out to gold country and try my hand at prospecting.

I stayed/prospected at an LDMA camp a bit south of there (by Columbia). Absolutely stunning country. Gold alluded me somewhat, but the views, history and memories were aplenty.

thecrazyone wrote:Is it still a "mine" today? Any chance of buying it back, maybe?

I have vague memories of seeing a picture of family working at the mine when I was young. I’m going to visit my sister in AZ this week and she on occasion talks to our grandmothers 98 year old sister. Maybe in their talks she mentioned the mine.
As for buying a mine, I’d rather just do some weekend prospecting.

hirbonzig wrote:

thecrazyone wrote:Is it still a "mine" today? Any chance of buying it back, maybe?

I have vague memories of seeing a picture of family working at the mine when I was young. I’m going to visit my sister in AZ this week and she on occasion talks to our grandmothers 98 year old sister. Maybe in their talks she mentioned the mine.
As for buying a mine, I’d rather just do some weekend prospecting.

That is a really great story (and memory). I'm not familiar with anything like that with my family here on the East Coast.

When I was a kid in the 70's my grandparents would get coins from the bank and pull silver. My grandfather had a coin collection. After they both has passed away, I came across some coins in a storage locker I was with my uncle at the time. I noticed no silver. My uncle said you want these coins I said we need to sell them with the estate and I don't see any silver coins in it. I know he took them. I asked him where the gold coins were he said he was wondering the same. But my mom did ok as grandparents went yard selling every week and had lots of gold and silver jewelry that my grandmother stated in the will all jewelry goes to her...

hobo finds wrote:When I was a kid in the 70's my grandparents would get coins from the bank and pull silver. My grandfather had a coin collection. After they both has passed away, I came across some coins in a storage locker I was with my uncle at the time. I noticed no silver. My uncle said you want these coins I said we need to sell them with the estate and I don't see any silver coins in it. I know he took them. I asked him where the gold coins were he said he was wondering the same. But my mom did ok as grandparents went yard selling every week and had lots of gold and silver jewelry that my grandmother stated in the will all jewelry goes to her...

I have an uncle like that, ended contact with him decades ago due to that kind of behavior..

justoneguy wrote:Christmas 10 years ago,
I opened a 1986 US mint 3 coin set,
as a gift from my daughter & son-in -law.
I looked at it, then went directly to my computer,
to verify what i believed.
It was a clad half dollar, a silver dollar, and a $5 gold coin.
I told the kids that this was WAY too much for a gift, about $500
and gave them $300 towards it.

Best part of the story;
They tried to sell it at a garage sale for $1.50.
No takers

Absolutely amazing story! Thx for sharing this.