The Haunted 1822 Cent
by Walter Napolitan
February 20, 2015

Hello Tom,

This is the story of my 1822 Matron Head I purchased from you back in December of 2012. This coin has surprised me twice. The story has a slight twist at the end!

It happened on a Saturday when my wife went to New Jersey to visit her parents. I planned three errands for my day. I went to a Target store, a food store and then to a friend's house to pay him for a paint job he did for me. Before I went out that morning, I remember comparing my large cent with other large cents online over a cup of coffee. That was the last time I remember seeing it!

When I arrived back home in the afternoon, the coin was nowhere to be found. I searched my car, driveway and house. I also went back to all three places I visited that day but did not find it.

I didn't remember taking the coin with me that day. When I do take a coin with me, I keep it in an air tight container and place it in an empty pocket. I am very careful not to have papers, money, tissues in that pocket. I remember thinking I would've heard it hit the floor or the ground had I dropped it.

During the next several months, whenever it popped into my head, I recounted the events hoping to understand how I lost it. I also searched the house a few times. I moved the couch, lifted the couch, lifted the bed on every side, looked under everything. After a while, I gave up hope that it would ever show up. But it always bothered me. If I or my wife ever misplaced something, I'd say, "I know where it is! It's gotta be next to my 1822 Large Cent!"

The day came when we had the carpets, toilets and a bathroom floors replaced. I worked from home that day and I needed to move everything out of the first floor. Even with the excitement of the new carpets, my mind was still hoping that it would show up during all the activity. The items were installed, the day was done and still, no coin turned up. I remember that summer I bought an 1818 from you (maybe as therapy? haha).

In early January of 2014, we planned a double birthday party at my home for my son's 18th and my mother's 85th. We were to have 30 people over that next week so on the Sunday prior, we worked to prepare the house. I was not thinking about the coin that morning until I went upstairs to vacuum. I guess the drone of the motor made my mind drift and I ended up revisiting that day again but this time, in great detail. While running the vacuum in the bedroom, I looked down and in the middle of the floor, right next to my right foot, there was the coin in that square airtight. I got chills and felt that the hair on the back of my neck stand up. It was the strangest experience I've ever had in my life! Someone may suggest that the coin was under the bed and swept out by the vacuum chord. But the bed was thoroughly searched multiple times by an obsessed person! I'm not saying it materialized magically but I have no explanation as to how it appeared.

That coin was the story of the birthday party. We began joking that maybe the coin was haunted! It seemed that it was a joke played on me!

Now for the twist:

Several more months passed after finding it, (or should I say after the coin found me)? I once again, took the coin as I sat down to enjoy a weekend coffee and happened to go back to the Coin Fact site. The coin I found in the middle of the bedroom floor was now an N2! WHAT??? HOW???

It then dawned on me that our email conversation was prior to me actually receiving the coin. It was all done based on the pictures while the coin was in transit! Neither one of us had the coin! The picture on your site was that of an N3 but actual the coin I received was INDEED an N2! You see, when I got the coin in December of 2012, I did not go back to the Coin Fact site to do a second check because I assumed the picture was correct. Then, I lost it.

I am an electronic pack-rat so I still have the picture we were looking at when we both agree that it was an N3. Yes, I still have it in my iPhoto! haha!

And here is the found coin that I actually received from you... N2!

So in the end, I got an N2 after all! Needless to say, this is a VERY special coin to me now! I've never had something this weird happen to me before. I cannot account for its appearance in the middle of the floor at the very moment I was thinking about it six or seven months after I lost it!

Well, I hope you enjoyed my "Haunted 1822 N2 Coin Story!"

Thanks!

Walt

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