hey what do we got here a whole lot of
silver
let me help you out real quick
the old man is crazy about silver he's
gonna be like a kid on christmas morning
when he sees this
i've never seen you get up from your
desk that quick i always get up sun not
generally very quickly
i came to the pawn shop today to sell my
silver i have over 3 000 ounces growing
up my dad always taught me to invest and
so i'm here today to cash in on that
investment if they want less than face
value well we'll see what we can work
out
wow that is a boatload of silver you
have right there
where did you get all this stuff so i
bought about 12 years ago
and i held on to it and here i am today
so what do you got here i got some
90 silver dimes over here some quarters
i got these bars and this thing alone is
almost 75 pounds oh that's cool most
people don't realize until 1964 all u.s
dimes quarters half dollars silver
dollars were all made out of silver
and all paper money was was a promise to
pay you real money right i've been
collecting silver sun for the past 30
years
silver and gold is a hedge against
hyperinflation
people have been mining silver since at
least 3000 bc but silver mining really
blew up after the discovery of the new
world when they found huge amounts of it
in south america
all right i just got to make sure you
know it's all silver coin okay
it's really important for me to scan all
the edges on these to make sure there's
no modern coins in here when you look at
an edge of a quarter or dime today you
see copper and nickel pre-64 all silver
no copper um
they look right it's the right color
it's uh all 1964 before uh do you mind
if i go weigh them just to make sure
they weigh the right amount no problem
[Music]
so you have 3 372 ounces of silver they
bought right at the bottom of the market
in the late 1990s silver was down to
three dollars an ounce but silver is the
best conductor of electricity there is
period just about every cell phone every
computer television they all started
needing silver by i think was last year
half a billion ounces of silver was used
just in industry i hear that there's
basically a shortage of silver nowadays
i'd love to buy silver all day every day
of the week because there's a set profit
margin i can sell it on the market
immediately uh so what do you want to do
with it i want to sell it
ricky this one's going to be difficult
to buy and you know why
when you're talking this much money
there's too much temptation to put a bar
of steel or something in the center
and when they make them this big they
don't make them in odd weights
so you're saying this might not be pure
silver
what i'm saying is there might be a
chunk inside that's not pure silver
can we test this thing um yeah drill a
few holes on it take the shavings out
melt them down make sure it's all silver
give me a few minutes everything checks
out i'll pay you it doesn't check out
i'll give you an address where you can
send it
okay
okay
[Music]
i never even imagined this might not be
silver i'm really nervous right now
testing silver is a little work but it's
not rocket science
first off you have to drill deep enough
to make sure there's not a lead core or
some other metal in the middle of the
bar
then you melt down all the filings until
they liquefy and you create a small
button the last step is dropping some
nitric acid on it and seeing what color
it turns when nitric acid reacts with
pure silver it turns a creamy white if
it's any other metal it could turn green
blue to gray
[Music]
okay here's the deal
[Music]
yeah it's hard it's fine
now that i know it's pure silver i'll be
more than happy to buy this humongous
bar but i have to factor in the unusual
cost when trying to sell something so
heavy and odd shaped
you got 46 000 for the coins 33 390 for
these bars right here
32.39 times
942 equals
so we got a total of
110 901
well let's make a deal
that is the deal
you can't go like 115. no
i mean there's not a lot of profit here
on a hundred and ten thousand nine
hundred one dollars i'm probably gonna
make 1500 bucks off yet
but can't you just hold all this for six
months a year and sell it for 120
or hold on to it for six months and sell
it for 50.
i am not a speculator in the silver
market i'm a businessman
so what's your
best price you give me today um i'll go
111 000 even i'll go up 99 bucks
how about 112. no no no there's no money
to be made for it
you know you're welcome to check around
but most people go a doppler back on
everything
yeah i mean that's what i can do i can
do um 111 000. or if you want to you can
tote the stuff around and check some
more
[Music]
well i bought it 12 years ago for way
less than that
111 sounds good to me all right let's
deal 111.
i'm really glad my dad taught me to
invest because today i'm walking out
with over a hundred thousand dollars i'm
gonna take one of these rick um no no
you're not come on
what do we got here oh i got a gold bar
i want you to look at right
oh wow hey pops
no come look at this
[Music]
where in the world did you get this
grandma just passed away a few months
ago we're cleaning things out and
we found this thing did grandpa's having
to be a jewelry store robber or anything
i came to the pawn shop today to see if
i could sell my old gold bar this bar
kind of really surprised us i never
really heard about it and nobody else
have so
i thought we gotta go get this looked at
and see what it's worth maybe sell it
get some money and split that up among
the family members
what do you think pops um it's gold
it's a big chunk of gold
you got approximately
24 000 worth of gold here
wow when you've been a pawn broker as
long as i have you know real gold when
you see it and judging by the weight of
it there's a lot of it before 1971
it was against a lot of owners
you weren't allowed to have more than i
think five ounces of gold in your house
period it was a federal offense it was
called the gold confiscation act
fdr
anti-depression bought all the gold off
everybody in the united states for 20 an
ounce and it was up until the 70s when
nixon took us off the gold standard that
we were allowed to hold gold again there
was a lot of people in this country who
hid it because they didn't want the
government taking it away during the
depression fdr made it illegal to own
gold you could own a little bit of
jewelry a little bit of coins that was
it the reason he did this is he wanted
to devaluate the value of the dollar
hoping that would spur the economy along
the weird thing about it is the markings
on it right here
what the xx means i have no idea so
what's the deal with this white stuff on
there sometimes they cast this in a mold
it's called investment it's like plaster
of paris but different
and
you'll have
crustaceans like this in it but it'll
flake right out with your fingernail and
this feels like it's actually like coral
or something
i mean it looks like shipwreck stuff to
tell you the truth you mean like buried
treasure
it could be yeah
um
was your grandfather a diver or anything
like that
i don't know if he wasn't or not he was
down in the caribbean for a while and i
don't know if he came across something
there he'd never tell anybody about i
buy gold from people every day
but i never have gold bars from a
shipwreck walking to my shop this thing
might not be worth its weight in gold it
might be worth way more
so uh what did you want to do with this
you want to sell it
yeah i want to sell it um i would like
someone to take a look at it this could
be off the ship just because of this
right here so i'll find out if it's
treasure for you that'd be great okay
thanks
i'm president of big blue rex salvage
and a marine artifact expert i'm
passionate about the pursuit of history
and information
well what are your concerns rick what
the xx means i have no idea and it looks
like
there's some crustacean on the back of
it that's not from casting well what
you've got here are the finest markings
these particular stamps
i recognize from the 1500s and even at
that time gold was evaluated on a 24th
scale it's marked as 20 carat i could
see with my own two eyes that's more
gold than 20 carats well they had taxes
in the 1540s and 1550s also so if you
can get it marked for less
you can avoid some of those taxes
i think it's pretty funny that even back
in the 1500s people were trying to cheat
on their taxes modern testing would
bring this in at probably 22 or better
okay so you think it's off a ship well
what you have is definitely coral
encrustation coral will attach itself to
something harder to grow okay it would
have taken um
oh decades
to have attached itself
this thing was underwater for a long
time and
this is definitely
shipwrecked treasure okay wheat
[Laughter]
there are two sites that have yielded
bars of this type
one is from the coast of texas uh the
1554 spanish fleet uh was wrecked there
and there's a site in the northern
caribbean so how much do you think it's
worth milk times two is what you're
talking about okay what does that mean
remember earlier when i said 24 000 in
scrap yeah
scrap is melt it's just like a trade
term so you're telling me that's worth
forty eight thousand dollars
in that neighborhood
yeah
that's what i'm talking about yeah i'm
gonna start melting down wedding bands
and stampin x's on it if you can get the
coral to grow on it i got a fish tank
all right thanks for coming in melbourne
my pleasure
there's probably not a lot of people out
there willing to buy this thing but
here's the deal the people that are
are willing to spend a lot of money
trust me a lot
so now that we know what you want to do
and i still want to sell it okay
and how much would you like for it
well if it's worth 48 i want 48.
um yeah money talks we're talking
different languages at the moment 44. uh
no because if i put this in an auction
they're gonna charge me twenty percent
okay all right i mean i'll go like
thirty two thousand dollars on it come
on you gotta give me more than that's
worth 48.
um
um i'll give you thirty five thousand
dollars and i don't wanna pay you that
cash money
all right thirty five thousand
let's go do some paperwork
totally pumped to get thirty five
thousand dollars it was a lot more than
i expected so i'm lisa's punch to get
that
hey how can i know i have a coin i think
you might be interested in okay it's a
steel pen uh are you familiar with those
yes i am
whoa
it's a 1944 steel penny
that is really neat
i know there's less than 100 of them in
existence now from my research there's
less than 30 that exist okay you know i
don't know pawn shop and i deal in a
gazillion different things so i can't
know everything even though my kids tell
me i'm gonna know it all
[Laughter]
i'm coming to the pawn shop today to
sell a 1944
steel penny this is a very rare coin was
given to me as a gift for my 70th
birthday i know i don't look 70 years
old but i am as old as this coin
it's amazing this is a really really
weird coin this coin does isn't supposed
to exist it was uh correct
you know world war ii happens a lot i
mean just everything was rationed bacon
was rationed and you know the u.s
government came along and says hey you
know we make tens of millions of pennies
every year basically told the u.s med
you have to make
sense out of something else because
copper is a war medal so they started
making you know the scents during 1943
out of steel that were zinc plated and
everyone absolutely hated them people
were confusing the steel scent for a
nickel or a dime
so in 44 we stopped making the steel
pennies but when you're making tens of
millions of cents
you know they were steel bins and stuff
like that and they think that like some
of the blanks got like stuck in the
corners and things like that and when
they were pouring them out into the
machines a few of these got made
this coin is one of the great mistakes
of the us met and in general when the
united states meant makes a mistake on a
coin that coin is going to be worth a
lot of money
how much are you asking for this
102 000
whoa
uh
i am going to call in a friend look at
this thing over 100 you know what i mean
fraud 102
102 yeah
hang out a few minutes i will get him
down here and we will try and figure out
a price all right i got it
this coin is extremely rare and really
desirable but 102 000 sounds like a lot
of money for this coin i have to do some
research and i gotta call some people
it isn't every day i get a call about a
1944 steel cent um this is pretty
amazing
um
these 1944 steelsense and the 1943
copper sense
are probably the most famous errors of
the 20th century from the united states
men
and you would not believe how many
people have dug through mounds and
mounds of pocket change trying to find
one of these because if you find one
it's a gold mine and we're looking at
one of them right now there you are yes
so how many of those actually got out
into circulation
well
that's a big question because
these were struck
at all three minutes
philadelphia denver and san francisco
they struck oh it was something like 2
billion
cents in 43 and 44 at the three minutes
and the total population of off-metal
strikes is about 60. and most of them
were struck at philadelphia like this
one
may represent something like half the
gnome population however it's still a
rare coin yeah and there's only 30 of
them out of a couple billion that's
pretty rare it's a very rare coin
there's a huge collector market for
these in some senses it's a little
narrow because there aren't too many
people who will part with this much
money for an error coin but for those
who take it seriously everyone wants
this
coin so what do you think this would go
for
um well you have here an extremely
valuable coin i think you know that and
there aren't too many to go around and
that drives the price up substantially
um
the last two of these that have traded
at public auction
in
last year and the year before both
brought
approximately thirty thousand dollars
and it seems awfully low to me
it's a public auction both of them
that's okay but you don't necessarily
have to bring this coin to a public
auction no but public auctions are
actually where the most realistic prices
are set because
every major collector in the world gets
those catalogs because there's these are
high profile auctions there's many sites
that value that coin a lot higher right
than that number that good okay the the
auctions are are very clear in
determining the value of these coins
okay all right every good one dave all
righty thanks the value of 30 000 for
this coin is extremely low
this is probably one of the rarest penny
coins in existence i don't know where
the expert came up with that value
it is what it is if this thing i would
give you like i would give you 25 grand
for it
no
i'm not sure you know what you have here
well i know exactly what i have i have
something that i could probably sell
between 30 and 35 thousand dollars
there's none for seller there's none of
these for sale this is the one okay all
right
this is the only one in the state of
nevada
um
maybe but it's still what it is what's
low should go
you know i i drop it down to the minimum
and it's
valued at about 75 000.
not gonna happen
then we will not be able to make a deal
i have a good one though thanks for
stopping by though no problem
i think the offer of 25 000 is
ridiculously low but i'll just keep it
in the family and
somebody eventually will sell it for a
lot more than i'm being offered today so
what do we got here this is a solid
silver julius caesar bust i think it's
solid silver wow puffing the base the
head is okay
it's vegas you know julius caesar really
really popular guy around here there's a
palace down the street
yeah
i'm at the pawn shop today to sell my
solid silver julius caesar bust i
inherited it when my aunt sadly passed
this bus was her prized possession it
was centerpiece over the fireplace
everyone could see it when they walked
in the house i'm hoping to get about 75
000 for it
this is really cool
julius caesar i mean the guy had a crazy
life i mean you got to be pretty cool to
get shakespeare to write a play about
jeff yeah
so it was around 46 bc he became
dictator of rome which was a 10-year
position
and pretty much decided you know that's
cool and all but i'm just gonna take
over the whole thing because he thought
that the senate and everything was
really corrupt so he just decided hey
you know what i know what's best i'm
just gonna make the decisions myself
they use the term benevolent dictator
right where he actually really cared
about the people and as far as they were
concerned julius caesar was
the guy but the senate hated him because
he took their power away and then
he ends up getting stabbed on the senate
floor
after he died his great nephew augustus
became the first emperor of the roman
empire and that's why we have july and
august
so where'd you get it it was passed down
to me okay um you mind if i take a
better look at it yeah yeah
came from the vatican i guess or has
something to do with it and
it says right here you got 500 ounces of
silver silver's around 24 bucks an ounce
we're looking at at least 12 000 worth
of silver if you melted it down right
that being said i mean it is a really
really cool piece
how much are you looking to get for it
i'm looking
realistically for about 75 000.
you know what man i really don't know
yeah somebody obviously spent a lot of
time and money making this thing right
so do you mind if i have a buddy of mine
come down and take a look at it yeah
yeah it's all good give me a second i'll
give a call be right back
i'm pretty confident the experts are
going to come in and i'll get pretty
close to the asking price that i'm
looking for today so
we'll see
so we have a bust of julius caesar 500
ounces of silver
can't go wrong with that
and there's something to do with the
vatican on the back mm-hmm yeah i
actually i recognize this piece i've
seen it before this is actually the
chiaramonte caesar and the thing that's
really neat about this is the fact that
this was molded from the original marble
so a foundry called arte divine got
licensing from the vatican to cast
several of their major works into bronze
and into silver and this is one of them
but what's really cool about it is this
is one of the only pieces that well one
of two this and the two skulloom
that was done during his lifetime
so it's a historically a very very
interesting piece
so how many of these were made this is a
very rare piece you almost never see
these
in the solid silver there were 99. so
what's something like this worth
when they first came out the gallery
price at the time was about 75 000 and
you'll still see them on the market for
that
for you guys and for the secondary
market
i don't i wouldn't pay more than 50 000
because i you need to make a profit as
well okay well chad i appreciate you
coming down man hey thanks a lot you
have a good day
okay so you know i know you heard chad
say 50 000. um that's still a lot of
money for me to put out like that and
it's gonna take a long time for me to
sell it i mean it is unique
it is pretty cool i just i don't really
want to tie up that much money for that
long i'll offer you about 30.
uh
they that's that's a little low
i mean i'm looking i'm looking to get a
little bit more closer towards the 50 if
possible
how about
we me in the middle
40 000.
[Music]
yeah we can do that
come on we've got to do some paperwork
40 000 you know i'm happy with that like
i say worst case could have been just
the silver so pretty happy morning
gentlemen hey how's it going good i'm
john i'm local bill bondsman i had a guy
skip out on me on fifty thousand dollar
bail and i was trying to see what i can
get out of this to pay the bond so he
skipped on you huh yes sir no laughing
matter yeah life is a sometimes
i decided to come to the pawn shop today
to sell my rare 1861 double eagle 20
gold piece i took this coin for
collateral against the guy skipping
court and he did skip card now i got to
pay 50 000 bucks so i'm hoping it'll
make a dent in the 50 000 that i owe on
this bond so do you know much about the
coin not much and i thought it was
pretty good condition but uh i was
hoping you could tell me was this graded
at one time or i know i've never had it
graded you mind if i pull this out of
the plastic because it's not great it
doesn't doesn't really matter pulling
this one out don't drop it
let's put down my little safety pin
appreciate it appreciate it thank you
how's it looking son
i mean it's in pretty damn good shape
the u.s men started making these coins
in 1849 and they continued to make them
for over 80 years but there were design
changes along the way and this appears
to be the original liberty head and it
was a big deal to have one of these back
then because 20 was a ton of money what
i can tell you about this coin is it
appears to be real this is uncirculated
mint state
this is a very expensive coin the reason
this one is worth so much money is
because this is a really low mintage
year
there's 11 different grades of men's
state from ms 60 to ms 70.
difference between a 61 and a 63 is the
difference between 10 000 and 40 000.
there's also a variant of this coin
that's worth right around a quarter of a
million dollars in the shape really
rick we might have the holy grail of
coin
i like that a lot there's a possibility
i'd like someone to look at it who just
knows a little bit more than me sure
so do you mind uh hanging out for a
little bit and i get somebody down here
great thank you appreciate it be right
back
being a bondsman is all about making
cash money man i'm hoping this expert
comes in tells me this coin's worth a
lot of money
i'm the owner of american coin express
i'm an avid collector and lover of coins
i've been doing it all my adult life
every coin is unique it's like a
fingerprint
okay
a 20 live when we had the 1849 gold rush
america had a substantial gold supply
they started issuing the
20 gold piece up till till then they
only had the 10 gold piece so that's why
they call it a double eagle versus a
eagle which was a 10 gold piece they
made one pattern in 1849
the year of the gold rush and that's
sitting in the smithsonian today and
basically priceless and then in 1850
they started issuing 20 gold piece uh
the liberty it was the highest
denomination gold people had out there
20 what are your questions or concerns
about this coin that you would like me
to evaluate i need to know the grade on
it and i know there's a variant of this
year that's super rare and worth a
quarter of a million dollars in this
shape so take a look
okay the variant is distinguishable by
the back it was a design which was not
accepted but some of them were issued as
patterns there's less of them and that's
what makes the coin rare okay so is this
it i'll look on the reverse
and that's how you could tell with the
tall letters and the shield variation in
the larger wingspan
unfortunately
you do not have here ugh
i am sorry okay
what grade do you think it is let me
take a good look at it and tell you it
was a long shot that this was the
quarter million dollar coin but it's
still rare and it's still valuable but
before i can make an offer i still have
to have its condition and grade
determined we could be talking thousands
of dollars or tens of thousands of
dollars looks very high grade off the
cuff very very minor scratches on the
whole coin good body very slight
wear this definitely is a
ms63 or a better coin which would
minimally be worth 40 000
okay thanks a lot andrew i really
appreciate it i'm very happy this coin's
worth a lot of money
so what do you want to do with it buy
her to sell it sell it how much you want
for it you heard the man 40 grand
uh 40 grand that's not gonna happen
i'm thinking more like 30 grand
and that's cash
well you said it was worth 40 and i
definitely need the money
how about 35
do you know you're gonna make five grand
off it
i'm not necessarily going to make it
five grand i plan on making five grand
plans don't always come out as planned
um
so how about 33
34 you got a deal
what do you think
i'm going to go for it what the hell
all right 34 000 fantastic all right
let's go right this thing up very good
just made 34 000 i'm very happy i have
to pay a 50 000 bond with it but it's
pretty good it's better than i expected