The nickel search upended a N.H. company
By David Tirrell-Wysocki, Associated Press, 7/30/2003 09:41
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) The two-month search for a million-dollar nickel ended early Wednesday with a celebration and a big sigh of relief from employees of the former New Hampshire company who fielded phone calls from thousands of would-be millionaires.
''Everybody worked so hard dealing with the different people who thought they had the coin,'' said Paul Montgomery, president of Bowers and Merena Galleries, which has since moved to Manville, La. ''We worked so hard to root this coin out, the fact that we were successful we are just as excited as could be.''
In a clandestine meeting at the Baltimore Convention Center, coin experts certified that a coin that had been kept in a closet for decades is the fifth 1913 Liberty Head nickel, one of only five ever minted.
In May, the company offered a $1 million reward for the coin. The hope was the reward would help turn up the coin in time for the American Numismatic Association convention that opened Wednesday in Baltimore.
It did.
Word of the reward offer was carried in an Associated Press story, prompting thousands of calls to Bowers and Merena.
''It cripples you,'' Montgomery said.
The company had 12 telephone lines in Wolfeboro, and all were lit up for days, a spokeswoman said in May.
The call that mattered came from the relatives of a North Carolina coin dealer who was rumored to own the coin in the 1960s. They brought the coin to the convention, where they would have the best access to experts.
The Liberty Head Nickel was replaced by the Indian or Buffalo Nickel after 1912. But five Liberty nickels with 1913 dates were minted illegally, possibly by a mint official.
The owners had been told in the early 1960s that the coin they had was bogus, so it had languished in a closet since then.
It will be on display in Baltimore until Sunday. Montgomery said the owners haven't decided yet whether to accept the $1 million or hold onto their prize.
He said it was an unbelievable ending to a celebrated search.
''We certainly dreamed of it happening,'' he said, ''but we thought the search probably was going to be in vain.''
By David Tirrell-Wysocki, Associated Press, 7/30/2003 09:41
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) The two-month search for a million-dollar nickel ended early Wednesday with a celebration and a big sigh of relief from employees of the former New Hampshire company who fielded phone calls from thousands of would-be millionaires.
''Everybody worked so hard dealing with the different people who thought they had the coin,'' said Paul Montgomery, president of Bowers and Merena Galleries, which has since moved to Manville, La. ''We worked so hard to root this coin out, the fact that we were successful we are just as excited as could be.''
In a clandestine meeting at the Baltimore Convention Center, coin experts certified that a coin that had been kept in a closet for decades is the fifth 1913 Liberty Head nickel, one of only five ever minted.
In May, the company offered a $1 million reward for the coin. The hope was the reward would help turn up the coin in time for the American Numismatic Association convention that opened Wednesday in Baltimore.
It did.
Word of the reward offer was carried in an Associated Press story, prompting thousands of calls to Bowers and Merena.
''It cripples you,'' Montgomery said.
The company had 12 telephone lines in Wolfeboro, and all were lit up for days, a spokeswoman said in May.
The call that mattered came from the relatives of a North Carolina coin dealer who was rumored to own the coin in the 1960s. They brought the coin to the convention, where they would have the best access to experts.
The Liberty Head Nickel was replaced by the Indian or Buffalo Nickel after 1912. But five Liberty nickels with 1913 dates were minted illegally, possibly by a mint official.
The owners had been told in the early 1960s that the coin they had was bogus, so it had languished in a closet since then.
It will be on display in Baltimore until Sunday. Montgomery said the owners haven't decided yet whether to accept the $1 million or hold onto their prize.
He said it was an unbelievable ending to a celebrated search.
''We certainly dreamed of it happening,'' he said, ''but we thought the search probably was going to be in vain.''
