The 1927-D silver dollars are the 2nd rarest Denver Mint Peace dollars in Uncirculated condition, so Littleton’s buyers leapt into action when they learned that 2 ½ mint bags (2,500) of 1927-D Peace dollars would be auctioned off through Sotheby’s of New York. A husband had given the silver dollars to his wife in 1927 for a 25th wedding anniversary gift. The coins had been locked in a bank vault for 65 years before the family decided to sell them through the famous auction house. Despite fierce bidding for these very scarce dollars, Littleton acquired over 2,000 of them, and customers quickly snatched them up.
1996
Reno Casino Hoard
For 20 years, Rudy, a Reno, Nevada casino worker, traded his own money for Carson City Morgans whenever he spotted them in the coins he sorted through daily. As Morgans grew scarcer, he began “saving” all silver dollars. By Rudy’s retirement, he had amassed 4,100 silver dollars including more than 3,312 Morgans. In the hoard, Littleton’s buyers discovered scarce “O over S” Morgans, created when a San Francisco reverse die was repunched with an “O”.
Vermont Yankee Hoard
Frugal Yankees A. K. and Imogene Miller lived a spartan life in Vermont. She wore raincoats made from plastic bags. He pedaled a 1903 bicycle with patched tires. Yet, after they died, an estimated $3,000,000 fortune was found hidden in the buildings and beneath the floor of the schoolhouse on their property. Littleton purchased first-year Uncirculated 1878-S Morgans, scarce $500 and $1,000 Federal Reserve Notes, and the rare Miss Drury tokens – calling the stash the Vermont Yankee Hoard.
N.Y. Subway Hoard
For years, a certain N.Y. subway token seller sifted through change seeking scarce coins. Many coins were marketed through George Shaw, a rare coin dealer. After Shaw’s death, Littleton Coin buyers acquired the many coins, including Type I 1916 Standing Liberty quarters, 1916-D Mercury dimes, 1914-D Lincoln cents, and other key-date coins.
1997
California Coin Cache
A California hoard that had been accumulating for years yielded 3,671 Flying Eagle cents dated 1857 & 1858. This was the largest group ever to be purchased at one time. The three previously known largest Flying Eagle cent hoards contained only a fraction of the coins comprising this cache. The entire group contained 8,467 U.S. type coins from the 18th & 19th centuries.
1998
Midwest MegaHoard
Littleton bought the largest coin hoard ever, holding 1.7 million Indian Head cents and Liberty and Buffalo nickels! Hidden in the walls of a Midwest collector’s house, the stash had been out of circulation since the 1950s and '60s. The coins, weighing 7.6 tons, were stored in canvas sacks and 55-gallon drums.
Buffalo Nickel Hoard
Buffalos stampeded into Littleton after the company bought a hoard of 300,000 – the largest one-time purchase of Buffalo nickels in the firm’s history. Sold by a western states dealer, some were still in Wells Fargo Bank bags. The 3,300-pound delivery arrived at Littleton ’s headquarters in a Brink’s armored car.
Montana Hoard
Mistrustful of banks, George Bouvier of Deer Lodge, Montana, hid 8,000 silver dollars and other coins he’d accumulated during his lifetime in his house walls. He also buried coffee cans full of coins under the floor of his shop. On his deathbed, he told a young friend about the hoard. The youth later told Bouvier’s relatives, whose search turned up over 17,000 coins. Littleton’s buying team purchased enough Morgan dollars from the hoard to assemble 500 all-mint sets of 1921 Morgan silver dollars.
1999
Southern "CC" Cache
A Georgia collector sold Littleton buyers the largest hoard of Carson City silver dollars since the U.S. Treasury Department emptied its vaults in 1980. Stored for years in a former southern bank building, the stash contained 8,261 lustrous Morgans in original General Services Administration (GSA) holders, including 378 1885-CC Morgans – the lowest mintage in the series.
2000
Steamer Trunk Hoard
Littleton’s team bought 171 $20 Confederate Notes with consecutive serial numbers from an original brick issued more than a century ago. Since the Crisp Uncirculated 1864 notes might have languished unnoticed in a piece of luggage, Littleton’s buyers called the stash the Steamer Trunk Hoard.
2002
Alabama Hoard
One family held a stack of 1864 State of Alabama Southern States Notes for more than 135 years. Still looking much as they did when printed in Montgomery over a century before, the Crisp Unused $5 and $10 notes presented a window on the Confederacy with their vignettes of plantation life. Littleton’s buyers purchased over 300 of the Confederate Notes, each of which was individually hand signed and numbered.
