Gold coins of Nevada recluse sold at auction $3.1M


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CARSON CITY, NV (AP) ? The last remnants of a fortune of coins found packed in ammunition boxes in the garage of a recluse who died last summer was auctioned Tuesday for more than $3.1 million ? but not before bidders got assurances they could return any of the rare $20 gold pieces that some collectors spotted as counterfeit.

Reno-based Silver State Coin bought three of the six lots offered at the Carson City district courthouse, just a few blocks from the old U.S. Carson City mint. Silver State paid nearly $1.2 million for the most expensive lot that featured 880 $20 gold Saint Gaudens.

The other half of the estate of Walter Samaszko Jr. ? consisting mainly of gold bullion ? sold at auction in February for about $3.5 million.

A cleaning crew that went through his small house after his death in June 2012 found the rare coins at his home in a modest neighborhood where neighbors were shocked to learn the elderly man who kept to himself was sitting on such a treasure.

"Anytime you have the 'hoarder mentality' where someone very unassuming is in possession of so much, you sort of say, wow," said Allen Rowe, the owner of Northern Nevada Coin and Bullion who purchased four of the six lots auctioned earlier this year and picked up two more lots on Tuesday for a total of $816,000.

The auction, which lasted about 30 minutes, was delayed briefly after Rowe said he had spotted at least 20 counterfeit gold coins among the more than 2,000 to be sold. The bidding restarted after Alan Glover, the Carson City clerk-recorder in charge of handling the estate, and estate lawyer Dawn Ellerbrock agreed with five potential bidders that any coins certified as fake could be returned.

The agreement seemed to satisfy Brittany Carlson, who made the winning bid on the most valuable lot on behalf of Silver State Coin.

"If I was buying those fakes blind, it might be different," she said.

Her plans for the coins?

"Sell them as quick as possible," she told reporters afterward.

 

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"Anytime you have the 'hoarder mentality' where someone very unassuming is in possession of so much, you sort of say, wow," said Allen Rowe, the owner of Northern Nevada Coin and Bullion who purchased four of the six lots auctioned earlier this year and picked up two more lots on Tuesday for a total of $816,000.

 

That's my first reaction too, wow. If I had money like that I would be using it. That might be why I never have any like that. :)

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