Rare gold Liberty coin part of Florida Unclaimed Property Auction

TAMPA (FOX 13) - Saturday, the Tampa Marriott Westshore Hotel will be transformed into a showroom for property abandoned in bank lockboxes and elsewhere, all put up for auction.

Every year at the 2018 Florida Unclaimed Property Auction, you’ll see hundreds of coins, but this particular year, one coin is drawing a lot of attention.

"There's a mint condition gold Liberty coin from 1801," Florida CFO Jimmy Patronis said. "The starting bid will be about $12,000, and we expect it could go as high as $30,000."

Currency collector Armando Sancerni, who's attended these auctions for over 20 years, says that one is a little out of his price range.

"Too high for my blood," Sancerni laughed. "I really buy a whole bunch of stuff and have a lot of fun."

He says that fun is in scoping out the details of coins, as he looks through a stack of quarters.

"The 1916 quarter had something special right on Lady Liberty's robe," he said. "From 1916 to 1930, these Standing Liberty coins were minted. Sometimes you buy something and you don’t know something is there, but then you open it up and you’re like ‘hey, where did this come from!’”

Nearly 51,000 items valued at more than $560,000 are set to be auctioned at the event

The sale is made up of abandoned items left behind in bank safe-deposit boxes. Once a safe-deposit box has been abandoned for three years, the bank sends the contents to a state vault, where items are held for another two years. After that time, in order to save room, the items are auctioned off to the public.

Saturday’s auction will be held at the Tampa Marriott Westshore Hotel, beginning at 10 a.m. For more information on the auction, or to see if you have unclaimed property, visit www.FLTreasureHunt.gov.