Chapter 10

Sunday

This morning, I left for Atlanta with ten sheets of gold coins. I’d identified ten large dealers in the Atlanta area that bought and sold gold coins. When I called, I made sure they were open on Sunday, though I doubted that I’d have time to visit more than a few of the dealers.

I arrived at the first dealer shortly after they opened. When I showed the salesman the sheet with the coins I wanted to sell, his eyes widened in surprise. “I’ve graded these and feel they’re all between MS-60 and MS-65. I’m sure you’ll point out any errors in judgment that I made,” I told him.

“Where did you find so many old Double Eagles in such good condition?” he asked.

I’d already come up with what I hoped was a plausible explanation, and used it, hoping to sound more like a local than a California boy, even though I couldn’t affect the accent. “I inherited my grandfather’s house last year. His father, grandfather, and great-grandfather had all lived in the house, too. The attic, basement, garage, barn, and machine shed were filled with everything except the kitchen garbage, and I think they brought a lot of stuff from the old family home when they first moved into the house. I even found two antique kitchen sinks.

“The family lived in the house since before the War of Northern Aggression. In that whole time, nobody went through the junk that was building up because they didn’t want to deal with it. After buying the place, I started going through the garage so I could use it to keep my car out of the weather. I found so many antiques and collectibles that I’ve already made more than I expected to make selling the old homestead.

“These were in the attic. The note with them explained that the original owner started hoarding gold coins because he didn’t trust banks and saw the war coming. Evidently, his descendants didn’t trust banks completely, either, as they kept adding to what was there. So far, I’ve found gold coins in eight different places in just the garage. Each spot had coins from different eras. I also have Eagles, Half Eagles, and Quarter Eagle coins clear back to when the government first started minting them.

“Unfortunately, I haven’t even begun to sort those yet. I figured that I’d start with the Double Eagles and get some experience grading and selling them before starting with the others. In the meantime, I still need to finish in the garage. Then I need to go through all the other places that are filled with stuff,” I laughed.

“They must have gotten these directly from the bank and stored them carefully,” he commented as he continued to scrutinize the coins using a jeweler’s loupe.

“Most of them were stored in small wooden boxes or cloth bags. Many of the boxes are antique cigar boxes, and even those are worth some serious bucks,” I replied.

“How many gold coins do you have?” he asked.

“Hundreds,” I replied. He’d been looking at the coins when he asked but his head jerked up to stare at me.

“Any chance you have a list?” he asked.

“Haven’t made a list, but I usually have at least ten, and sometimes fifteen to twenty of almost every Double Eagle that was put into circulation. I have two or three of each of the four rarest ones. I only have one of the 1861 Paquet Double Eagles, though. I haven’t checked the condition of all of them yet, but they all appear to be in nearly the same condition as these.”

“You have an 1861 Paquet?” he gasped.

“Yes, and the two 1907 Saint-Gaudens Ultra High Relief, as well as the three 1854-O and four 1856-O that will go to an auction house.”

“If they’re in the same condition as these, the New Orleans coins could go for a million each. The 1907 could go for three or four million. The Paquet, who knows?” he said.

“That won’t happen for a while. I only intend to sell one of each at a time. In the meantime, they’re in safe deposit boxes at several different banks.”

“Planning to buy something with the money?” he asked.

“Not really. It’ll stay in an investment account until I need it. I just donated enough to my college for them to build a new dormitory tower and a new parking structure.” That comment brought yet another surprised stare.

He finally finished grading the coins. On all but two, he agreed with the grade I’d assigned. On those two, he showed me why he graded them down one grade. It took him another half hour to price the coins. What he offered was $73,254, slightly more than what I’d expected.

“Deal,” I agreed. I showed him my driver’s license and student ID, then gave him my stateside bank account information for the electronic transfer.

“When you’re ready to sell again, I’d love to do more business with you,” he commented. “I’d really like to buy some of the rarer dates that you aren’t going to auction. I can handle up to half a million dollars’ worth, and even more if you give me two banking days’ notice.”

“How about next Saturday?” I asked. I liked dealing with him and felt that he’d been honest with me.

“That would be great. If you want, I can even be here at seven o’clock,” he offered.

“Then I’ll see you at seven next Saturday,” I said, shaking his hand.

My experience with the second dealer was similar. He only disagreed with my grade for one of the coins, but he paid slightly less than the first guy did.

When the third guy tried to downgrade the condition of the first five coins he looked at, I just took the coins and left. I didn’t even say thank you, fuck you, or kiss my ass.

That left me with enough time to visit two more shops. Both changed only two of the grades I’d assigned the coins and paid almost exactly the same as the second guy. Rather than drive home tonight and drive back tomorrow, I found a decent motel and spent the night there.

Monday

Today was similar to yesterday except I visited shops in the Atlanta suburbs. The first dealer reminded me of the first dealer yesterday, paying only two hundred dollars less than he had. However, the second and third dealers tried to downgrade the condition I had listed for the coins, and I walked out. The fourth and fifth dealers paid about what the first guy this morning had.

None of the dealers today asked about the other coins or acted overly interested in them so I decided to stick with the initial dealer from yesterday. Tired, I headed for home with almost half a million more dollars in my account.

Upon returning home, I put the remaining sheets of coins I’d taken with me into the wall safe. Then I transferred the money from selling the coins into the Cayman Islands investment account and crashed.

Tuesday

I was in Ray’s office early this morning and could see that they were still dealing with this summer’s work, so I volunteered to lead the first orientation tour for them. The tours were only for archaeology students, meant to familiarize them with the archaeology department. The school had other tours for the rest of the campus to familiarize all students with the main campus.

The archaeology department tours were usually led by grad students, or occasionally seniors. I hadn’t been scheduled to lead any tours because they hadn’t been sure when I’d be back since I’d been hijacked to work at Montabala. The tour took two hours as there were two huge buildings to visit, as well as the interactive museum on the upper two floors of the new archaeology building. The tour didn’t include the below-ground storage areas since those required proper security clearance to enter. However, the group could see parts of the storage area via video monitors. They were definitely interested in the ground floor of the new building where this summer’s interns were finishing with the artifacts they had uncrated and studied this summer.

We also took a quick tour through the museum. I was surprised to find that they were already building a display for the artifacts from the Montabala crypt. “Hey, Johnny, how about stopping by later to make sure we set it up right? And can you give us one of your sketches showing what it looked like originally?” the museum’s curator asked me.

That comment necessitated explaining what he was doing and that I’d been at the dig where the artifacts were found, as well as the fact that I did sketches of ancient sites showing what they looked like originally.

“Did you do the original sketches for the Perchance to Dream movies?” one of the students asked, which required an explanation about my dream sketches. I could see that most of the students didn’t believe it, which was fine with me.

By the time I finished the tour, the other tour guides took over. I headed home to paint the two funeral scenes I’d sketched in Montabala--the procession and the body inside the crypt. I figured that I should paint them since they’d probably end up being displayed as part of the exhibit.

I stopped at an art supply dealer on the way home. One of my art teachers had given me the name of the local company the school used. The company had everything from cheap grades of supplies to student grades and even professional grades. Since this painting was for the museum, I purchased the highest grade of everything, from the canvas to the varnish.

Once home, I took two easels and my painting paraphernalia, as well as two blank canvases outside so I could paint in the sunlight. That made me realize one thing I’d need to do to the house when I moved in, take an upstairs bedroom and add a window and skylight, so I had more natural light for painting.

I hadn’t used a canvas since my last art class two years ago. First, I started four citronella candles burning, one at each of the corners of an imaginary square around me to keep bugs away and out of the wet paint.

Just before lunch, I met one set of my neighbors here in the dorms and recognized the guy from one of my science classes two years ago. He introduced me to his wife and wondered when I’d gotten married. I explained that I’d been moved into the married dorms instead of the grad student dorms, so I’d have room for my diving and camping gear.

Being lazy and in a hurry, I used a pre-primed canvas to save the time and headache of gessoing it. I started the first canvas by blending the right shade of white on my palette for the walls of the crypt and roughing in everything but the center where the body would be. When I finished that, I left it to dry and used the same shade of white to cover the second canvas. That would be the painting of the funeral procession.

Once the acrylic paint was dry enough to work with, I returned to the first canvas and began roughing in the priest’s body. Each time I finished with one color, I moved to a different area of the canvas or switched to the other canvas.

Reaching a point four hours later where I could stop, I washed out my brushes and then ate a quick lunch. I’d used several brushes so far and had left them soaking in small bottles of water, a different bottle for each color because I use a different brush for each color, even though I wash the brushes thoroughly. I put a dab of paint on the tip of the handle of each brush so I know what color it had been used for. By the time the sun began to set, I had a good start on both paintings and took them inside.

I ran the original sketch of the burial chamber to the museum and left it with one of the guards, telling him to let the curator know that I didn’t need it back, although I didn’t tell him that I could easily recall every detail.

After dinner, I spent the evening sorting the double eagles. I pulled out one example of each coin except for the ones I planned to have professionally graded and sent to an auction house. I filled five and a half of the pocketed sheets to sell to the guy in Atlanta next weekend. It was late before I finished grading them and finding estimated prices for each in the books and online. My estimated price was a bit more than his five-hundred-thousand-dollar limit.

I spent the rest of the week painting, surprised that I didn’t find the long hours taxing. In the evenings, I graded and sorted coins, filling plastic sheets.

Saturday and Sunday

I spent all day Saturday and half the day Sunday with the coin dealer in Atlanta. I’d called on Wednesday and warned him what I was bringing so he had another employee there to watch the front. He and I spent the day in the back part of the store.

When he shook my hand and thanked me Sunday, he’d been able to arrange a short-term loan and just deposited almost $600,000 in my account. Most of the coins he bought would normally sell for only slightly more than the price of gold if they were in average condition. Since mine were in much better condition, they brought significantly more. He was excited about seventy-three of the coins as he knew people specifically looking for them.

He felt that some of his regular customers would want to sell him the coin they currently had and replace it with one I just sold him because it was in much better condition.

He asked if I’d hold off for a month or so, giving him time to liquidate these. I gave him my phone number and told him to call me when he was ready. I told him that he could even email me a list of specific Double Eagles or Eagles that he wanted. I figured that I’d have the rest of the Eagles sorted by then, even with school starting Monday.

Also on Saturday, the realtor called to let me know I could pick up the keys to the house any time after two o’clock Monday. The inspection and all the requisite paperwork had been completed. I suggested four o’clock since I had a class until three.

Monday

School started today. Once again, I was looking forward to my classes. All but one of my teachers was a “Dr. Parker.” The one who wasn’t was Dr. Dalton, the teacher with the most seniority in the department. I have no idea what his problem was, but he warned me that he wouldn’t cut me any slack because I was one of Dr. Parker’s “pets.” I made sure to apprise Ray about the comment when I went to lunch.

“He’s upset because our group always has all the funding we need for projects and equipment. We receive everything we request because we earn even more than we spend. He’s wanted a new scanning electron microscope and a mass spectrometer for two years. The school has told him to use the ones we have here. There are plenty of time slots available, but he just wants his own equipment. He’s only used ours two or three times in the last two years. We use one or both at least twice a week. I think he’s just upset because he wasn’t, and isn’t, a part of what’s brought the school so much acclaim.”

“That’s fine, I just wanted to make sure I hadn’t done anything to make him upset,” I replied.

“He’s definitely going to be upset when the new articles about the Quitu culture and about Montabala come out. His last two submissions were rejected because more recent data was available. When he sees you being mentioned in cutting edge articles, he’s going to be very jealous,” Ray chuckled.

Amy and Alice both sought me out today, telling me about everything that happened after I left for Montabala. Alice and Josh were a couple, but Amy was still unattached and suggested that we “get together” again.

I warned her that my wife had already been chosen by the Tribunal. She countered that she wasn’t interested in a serious boyfriend.

The closing on the house was uneventful, aside from a serious case of writer’s cramp.

Friday

The beds and other furniture that I bought were delivered and set up this afternoon. Amy had accompanied three of Ray’s wives to buy everything, using my debit card. Like I said before, sometimes they acted like mothers to me and sometimes like sisters. Whichever mode they were in, they enjoyed themselves and bought quality furnishings. Amy had tried to purchase cheaper things, but Ray’s wives knew I could afford the quality stuff. We’re not talking about overpriced fashionable crap, but quality furniture that will last for years.

Saturday

I paid several guys I knew to move my stuff from the dorm into my new home. They moved Amy’s, too, since she’d already practically moved in with me. We spent the rest of the day unpacking.

Sunday

Today I bought a new pickup truck so I could haul my gear around. Both my car and truck fit inside the garage with the last empty slot for Amy’s car.

I also bought a wall-mounted gun safe and it, and the coin safes were “installed” in the new house by the Tribunal the same way they’d been installed in my dorm room. It was weird having the deep wall safe and gun safe installed in standard thickness walls and not seeing anything odd.

Monday

I met with two contractors today, both recommended by Ray. I explained to the first that I wanted a second floor added to the garage. I wanted as many big windows as possible on the south, east, and west sides, and as many skylights as possible.

That contractor also widened the door into the downstairs study in the house, making it a double door. Each door had retractable pegs that went into the floor and the top of the doorway. There were also two deadbolts on the door. One was at the normal level and the other was about shoulder high. Both required a key to open them. The extra locks were to keep my gear safe since it wasn’t protected in the same manner as the coins.

I hired the second contractor to install solar panels on the house.

Saturday

Today, I made a trip to Sarasota to the Numismatic Grading Company (NGC), one of the most respected coin grading companies. Rather than mail the coins or send them by secure courier, I took them personally. The company’s owner arranged the delivery to the auction house of the six coins I wanted to auction.

Tuesday

I finally finished the two paintings for the museum. Carefully putting them into my car, I drove to school. When I arrived, I carried one in each hand as I headed for Ray’s office. He, his wives, and the students working in the office loved the paintings.

From there, I headed for the museum to find the curator. He was excited to see me, more so when he saw the paintings. “These are for the display,” I informed him.

“It will take a couple weeks to make display cases with UV resistant glass to protect them,” he warned as he studied the paintings. He took several photos of each painting to check small details about the crypt they were working on.

They had done a good job of setting up the “crypt” by using the photos from the dig that had been enclosed with the artifacts from the crypt as well as my sketch. While I knew that the “walls” of the museum’s crypt were plaster formed over chicken wire, they had done an excellent job of making it look real. The color matched the real thing and they’d even made what looked like marks from the tools used to carve out the original crypt. The mannequin they used looked realistic, although only the hands and face were visible. They had even filled the mouth with maize kernels made from acrylic and added the jade bead.

I had to fill out and sign paperwork to record my donation of the two paintings. When I wouldn’t assign a value, the curator insisted and valued each painting at five hundred dollars, “for tax purposes.”

Three weeks after the second coin delivery, I made another trip to the dealer in Atlanta, this time with sixty Double Eagles, ones he had specifically requested. The rest was a mix of Eagles and Half Eagles. I warned him that I’d make one more delivery when he was ready but intended to wait a year after that before selling any additional coins. I’d already sold more this year than I’d originally intended. That next delivery would be Quarter Eagles, one dollar and three-dollar gold coins, and any other gold coins that he requested.

My house’s new studio was completed near the end of September, and I loved it. The walls looked like the glass walls of some business buildings. Aside from a few shadows from roof supports, the interior was just like working outside, sans the seasonal temperature variations, wind, and annoying bugs.

Early December

After returning from doing the first cenote documentary during Thanksgiving break, I learned that Dr. Dalton was still pissed at me and stuck his foot in his mouth trying to undermine me. Unbeknownst to me, near the end of September, the Mexican Government had called the school to see if there was any way I could be excused from classes the week before Thanksgiving break. They were directed to the Chancellor who assured them that it would be no problem. The government had even talked the NGS into calling to add their support to the request.