Posted on 03/02/2016 4:19:25 PM PST by OttawaFreeper
The population of one of the rarest baseball cards in the world has grown by seven after an amazing discovery in the rural South. Only about 15 of the rare 1909-1911 T206 Ty Cobb variation, distributed only in tins of the short-lived Ty Cobb Tobacco product, were known to exist until a family began going through the belongings of a family’s deceased great-grandfather. While not immediately certain of the scarcity of what they’d found, it became apparent last month that they’d stumbled upon a small fortune inside the dilapidated home.
(Excerpt) Read more at sportscollectorsdaily.com ...
This is better than finding one Honus Wagner card, no?
He’d make Charlie Hustle look like a slacker.
I had a great uncle who dies several years ago. He lived in a shack in rural Alabama and would threaten anyone he did not know with a shotgun; yep, stereotypical.
After he died my father and uncles went to clean out his estate so that it could be sold. They found nearly $450,000 in gold coins, some that should have been turned in in the 1930’s when FDR stole individual’s gold.
The old man had saved all that money all those years and lived in a shack without running water.
Most of it went to the State of Alabama for back taxes on the property and then other estate taxes.
I know that Wagner was a non-smoker and did not want his likeness on cards promoting tobacco use (production was thus halted and that’s why Wagner cards are very rare and desirable). It’s interesting though to read of the “short-lived” Ty Cobb tobacco product and thus why these cards are a very rare and expensive find.
I recall reading a short bio of Ty Cobb and since he was a master of “small ball”, getting on base and your way working around via stealing and general base running skills, someone mocked him as being unable to pound home runs. Cobb supposedly said he’d show them and the next game knocked in something like 3 or 4 homers. Said ‘there ya go’ and went back to small ball because he preferred that style. Found that interesting, assuming it’s true.
Old baseball lore has it that Cobb would file his spikes sharp before each game.
“They found nearly $450,000 in gold coins, some that should have been turned in in the 1930’s when FDR stole individual’s gold.”
That is a very interesting story. Was that part of what took place when the United States government moved away from using the gold standard (one of the ways the Roosevelts made the 1930s a lot worse than it had to be)?
Minimal needs and copious FU money... can think of worse ways to live.
He was one of the game’s greatest. He had the rep of being a dirty player, sharpened spikes and the like. Probably jealousy, maybe not. He had a tragedy in his family, as I recall, murdered parent or something. I’ll have to reread the book.
How the hell did that even happen.
Tell me again, how America is free.
He played through injuries that would be considered career ending today.
Gold coins? What gold coins? That’s better than finding cash (paper) money. Just divvy it up in private and slowly divest yourselves of the proceeds.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_6102
Executive Order 6102 is a United States presidential executive order signed on April 5, 1933, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt “forbidding the Hoarding of gold coin, gold bullion, and gold certificates within the continental United States”. The effect of the order, in conjunction with the statute under which it was issued, was to criminalize the possession of monetary gold by any individual, partnership, association or corporation.
Executive Order 6102 required all persons to deliver on or before May 1, 1933, all but a small amount of gold coin, gold bullion, and gold certificates owned by them to the Federal Reserve, in exchange for $20.67 (consumer price index, adjusted value of $378 today[4]) per troy ounce. Under the Trading With the Enemy Act of 1917, as amended by the recently passed Emergency Banking Act of March 9, 1933, violation of the order was punishable by fine up to $10,000 (equivalent to $182,802 today[4]) or up to ten years in prison, or both.
Order 6102 specifically exempted “customary use in industry, profession or art”—a provision that covered artists, jewellers, dentists, and sign makers among others. The order further permitted any person to own up to $100 in gold coins (a face value equivalent to 5 troy ounces (160 g) of gold valued at about $6,339 in 2016). The same paragraph also exempted “gold coins having recognized special value to collectors of rare and unusual coins.” This protected recognized gold coin collections from legal seizure and likely melting.
Cobb’s Father was a prominent man in the community. He married a young beauty. He was suspicious that she was having a lover and sneaked either in or by the window.
She was not having an affair and thought he was an intruder and shot him. At least that was her story and the sheriff believed her.
Cobb also said when he was a rookie, the old players tried to run him off and he had to get tough to survive.
He was the first man elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame ahead of even Ruth.
I don’t know what the coins were. The old man hadn’t paid his property tax in years and there were tax liens on the estate when he died. Finding the coins meant that nobody had to go broke paying off those liens as the property was actually rather valuable.
They made more money selling the land after the taxes were paid
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_Clause_Cases
The Gold Clause Cases were a series of actions brought before the Supreme Court of the United States, in which the court narrowly upheld restrictions on the ownership of gold implemented by the administration of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in order to fight the Great Depression. The last in this series of cases is notable as the most recent Supreme Court opinion whose outcome was leaked to the press before the official release of its decision. The cases were:
Norman v. Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Co.
United States v. Bankers Trust Co., 294 U.S. 240 (1935)
Nortz v. United States, 294 U.S. 317 (1935)
Perry v. United States, 294 U.S. 330 (1935)
Those were tough times and most players didn’t let injuries sideline them or they wouldn’t get paid. Heck, many of them worked full time jobs during the off season.
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