Fast buck Florida Style

Some news from The Tallahassee Democrat-

Capital City Bank vault teller Trevor Bryan got a surprise Friday in the new Federal Reserve shipment of George Washington $1 coins.

When Bryan and banker Kyre Lahtinen were at the downtown location inspecting the coins, they noticed that not all of them were made equal. They were the same size, shape and color, but some were missing the date and mint stamp.

The side - not the face - of the coin is supposed to say, "E Pluribus Unum In God We Trust 2007 P."

They immediately called Paul Barattini at Affiliated Auctions & Realty about the rarity of the coin. Barattini has been selling coins since 1974, when the Philadelphia-raised man went to the Baltimore Coin Show to make his first profit.

"The likelihood to get errors on coins the first week distributed is like getting struck by lightning three times," said Barattini, whose business also sells war memorabilia, paintings and Elvis records. "An error like that is an exciting thing in the coin world."

He offered the bank $50 for five of the coins. It wasn't immediately clear exactly how many of the coins are circulating in Tallahassee.

"Now the question is: what is it really worth?" Barattini asked. "If there are only a few hundred, they could be worth $500 to $1,000 each."

Wow, $500 to $1,000 on a one dollar investment. That makes Hillary Clinton's profit on cattle futures almost seem possible.(Cue the sarcastic laughter.)

Linked to- Amboy Times, Cao, The World According to Carl,