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Carl W. Lundquist, Colonel AUS (Retired)
In 1993 a friend
of mine brought me a plastic ice cream bowl with a few hundred mostly foreign
coins and asked me to look them over and tell him what he had. He warned
me that there might be some surprises.
He explained
that during World War II he had worked as a stevedore on the piers of Boston.
While he mixed with the sailors of the nations of the world he asked them
for coins from their native lands. The coins were mainly just ordinary
pocket change. Since he was a good friend I took special care to research
each coin and write down information about each coin.
I was almost
finished when I came upon a tiny Dutch coin. Since I had many of these
ten cent coins I knew that they were mostly worthless and I decided not
to research this coin in 'The Standard Catalog of World Coins". But, it
hurt my sense of order not to research this one coin and I looked it up.
At first I couldn't
believe what my eyes told me, that this 1945p Dutch dime was worth a lot
of money. I was especially skeptical because millions upon millions of
these coins had been minted. (90,650,000 to be exact). But after walking
around my office a few times and the block around my house and checking
the catalog over and over I realized that I had a find and set out to find
the reason. But, before setting out I told the owner of the coin what I
had found and he urged me to dig deeper which I did.
My first stop was to present
the coin at meetings of the Boston Numismatic Association and the Collectors
Club of Boston where I had been a member for many years. The club members
offered many possible reasons but no one really knew.
Next I went to
the Netherlands consulate in Boston. They were sympathetic but did not
have the answers I needed. The consulate officials did, however, give me
the name of the most prestigious coin collector in Holland, Mr.
Robert L. Schulman, and the address of the Dutch mint and I wrote to
both of them. The weeks went by and turned into months and no answer came.
Finally I wrote again to the Dutch mint.
I had barely
mailed the letter when a letter came from Mr. Schulman apologizing for
the delay. He had used my letter for a bookmark and had completely lost
track of my request. To make up for the delay he gave me a complete history
of this bit of a coin. "Yes, indeed," he wrote. "Your coin is valuable
and very rare." and here is what he wrote in answer to my questions.
World War II
was winding down in 1945 and the Dutch government in exile in England ordered
millions of ten cent silver pieces from the United States Mint in Philadelphia.
When the war ended these coins were shipped to Holland where the government
decided not to issue the coins but to melt down these tiny silver coins
and to use the money realized to help pay off the Dutch war debt to the
United States.
The melted coins
were then sent back to the United States. The Dutch are very proud of this
decision as it enabled them to be one of the few countries who paid off
their World War II debt to the United States.
Shortly thereafter
I received a letter from Mr. Albert A.J. Scheffers, Curator, Museum van's
Rijks
Munt, Netherlands who related approximately the same story but added
a fascinating statement.
Mr. Scheffers
estimated that "....between ten and fifty were saved from the melting pot.
The mintage was never put in circulation ....and was sent back to the U.S
in bars." Mr. Scheffers estimated that it was not out of line to expect
from "$453.00 to $1,332.00" for the coin depending on condition. My friend
asked me what he should do with the coin. I told him that if the coin were
mine I would advertise in the "Numismatist" and see what develops or I
would take the coin to coin shows and to the many coin clubs I belong to.
If these ploys
did not work I would write to the Dutch Numismatic Association and ask
for Dutch coin publications and advertise there. I felt that given time
and diligence he could get top price for this rare coin. My friend pondered
for a while and then asked me if I would buy the coins. I told him that
I couldn't afford them. Since he had no interest in the possibly tedious
job of marketing the coins he made me an offer I could not possibly refuse.
I dug deeply into the piggy bank and I now own the entire collection including
the ten cent piece.
I immediately
took out an ad in the "Numismatist" which drew only one offer. This offer
from a Dutch collector was far too low in my opinion for a coin of such
rarity and I declined to sell it to him. He did, however, give me one piece
of information which I put to use. He said that most of the known coins
were in either uncirculated or almost uncirculated condition. I had rated
the coin as XF. Now I wanted to know for sure and I sent the coin to PCGS
to be slabbed. Lo and behold the coin came back rated as almost uncirculated
AU-58.
By now the coin
was attracting so much attention and was serving as so great a conversation
piece that I decided not to sell but to keep it to show off. I still have
the coin. My hope is that the rarity will someday bring a very high
price. After all, very few collectors can have a complete collection and
who knows how many collectors will forever have a tiny hole in their collection
that my coin could correct. I think I shall keep the coin. I guess I'm
in love with it.
(Please see Page
1283 of 1999 Standard Catalog of World Coins, 26th Edition, Krause and
Michler and See page 36, Foreign Coins Struck at United States Mints by
Galtz and Barton, Whitman Pub. Co, Racine, Wisconsin, 1965)
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