SECRECY TRUMPS PUBLICITY...at least here

      I never liked the publicity behind coin collectors dropping valuable coins deliberately into circulation. Scott Travers is one of those people and even though he has never found out the fate of any of his drops, it bugs me nonetheless because of the timing of the publicity. I remember reading about this in a coin magazine too...he's surrounded by photographers watching him make those purchases. Now, he sets up a ruse that those picture takers are there for something else, but that's too much publicity at the time of the drop making it all too likely that this coin will not be spent around before being located but instead, will end up in the pocket of the vendor who received it. Certainly that would happen with me.

      I'm not against these drops, but I don't think people should be in on them until after they happen. If you need "proof", then watch the guy roll up the coins in question and deposit them (without suspicious photographers and videographers about) in a local bank. Who knows where they'll go and how long it will take them to be found. It's more interesting to me that way and it allows for a more realistic chance that this coin could be found by anyone rather than the vendor who received it right there and then. Hell, deposit them into a soulless CoinStar. Who knows where those coins get shipped? It really opens up possibilities.

      I used to seed coin rolls thusly as a kind of karmic thank you whenever I found something valuable to me in my till. Someone, somewhere has received some steel cents, wheat cents from 1909-1934, Indian Head cents, Buffalo nickels, Liberty nickels, and some Barber dimes and quarters. All well-worn, of course, but identifiable. I don't have the means to seed coins with considerable value. I've never seen them again nor have I ever expected to. Still, it's a nice thought wondering who opened a quarter roll and found a 1906 Barber quarter staring back at them. With the introduction of coin sorters in my banks, this has been very difficult to continue doing since these coins tend to get rejected as they are now underweight from being so worn.

      I just figure you're wasting everyone's time to purposefully spend valuable coins so obviously. Do it clandestinely and I think you'll achieve better results.