Pawn Stars s03e04 Episode Script
Aw Shucks!
On this episode of Pawn Stars I got a gold bar I want you to look at.
I mean, it looks like shipwreck stuff.
You mean, like buried treasure? It could be, yeah.
That's what I'm talking about.
Hey, what can I help you with? A collection of baseball field passes.
These are extremely rare.
The baseball hall of fame said they could be worth a lot of money.
This was used by the navigator of a b-29 superfortress.
Didn't they have little blast things to bust these things off? So are you saying that might be not stable? I have no idea.
Great.
I'm Rick Harrison, and this is my pawn shop.
I work here with my old man and my son, big hoss.
Everything in here has a story and a price.
One thing I've learned after 21 years, you never know what is gonna come through that door.
What have we got here? I got a gold bar I want you to look at.
All right.
Oh, wow.
Hey, pops.
You want to come look at this? Where in the world did you get this? My grandma just passed away a few months ago.
We were cleaning things out, and we found this thing.
Did grandpa happen to be a jewelry store robber or anything? [Laughter.]
[Sirens wailing.]
I came to the pawn shop today to see if I could sell my old gold bar.
This bar kind of really surprised us.
I never really heard about it, and nobody else had.
So I thought, "we got to go get this looked at and see what it's worth.
" What do you think, pops? It's gold.
It's a big chunk of gold.
You got approximately $24,000 worth of gold here.
Wow.
When you've been a pawn broker as long as I have, you know real gold when you see it.
And judging by the weight of it, there's a lot of it.
Before 1971, it was against the law to own this.
You weren't allowed to have more than, I think, five ounces of gold in your house, period.
It was a federal offense.
It was called the gold confiscation act.
Fdr, to end the depression, bought all the gold off everybody in the United States for $20 an ounce.
And it was up until the '70s when Nixon took us off the gold standard that we were allowed to own gold again.
There was a lot of people in this country who hid it because they didn't want the government taking it away.
During the depression, fdr made it illegal to own gold.
You could own a little bit of jewelry, a little bit of coins; That was it.
The reason he did this is, he wanted to devaluate the value of the dollar, hoping that would spur the economy along.
The weird thing about it is the markings on it right here.
What the "xx" means, I have no idea.
So what's the deal with this white stuff on there? Sometimes they cast this in a mold that's called investment.
It's like plaster of Paris but different.
And you'll have crustations like this in it.
It'll flake right out with your fingernail.
This feels like it's actually like coral or something.
I mean, it looks like shipwreck stuff, to tell you the truth.
You mean, like buried treasure? It could be, yeah.
Was your grandfather a diver or anything like that? I don't know if he was or not.
He was down in the Caribbean for a while.
And I don't know if he came across something there he didn't ever tell anybody about.
I buy gold from people every day.
But I never have gold bars from a shipwreck walk into my shop.
This thing might not be worth its weight in gold.
It might be worth way more.
So what did you want to do with this? You want to sell it? Yeah, I want to sell it.
I would like someone to take a look at it.
This could be off a ship just because of this right here.
So I'll find out if it's treasure for you.
That'd be great.
Okay.
Thanks.
What is that? A celestial navigation dome for a b-29 superfortress.
Okay, and where in the world did you get this thing? It's been in a barn for about 20 years.
Rats have chewed on the box, and, you know, it's old and damp in there.
Yeah, hope it's not dangerous to breathe in the fumes this thing's giving off.
[Laughter.]
Seriously.
[Triumphant music.]
I came to the pawn shop to sell my observation dome from a b-29 superfortress.
I refuse to tell these guys how much I paid for it, because they'll probably just try to lowball the [Bleep.]
Out of me.
This was used by the navigator to do celestial navigation at night.
His job was to make sure that plane was right where it was supposed to be on course.
Let me see.
Dome, navigator's observing.
Type a-1b.
Date of manufacture, 9-31-53.
This thing looks really cool.
I don't know much about it.
But apparently, they'd have a navigator looking out of this thing, using the sun and stars to navigate while they were in the air.
You have to remember, they didn't have GPS back then.
This is interesting.
I wonder what that's for.
I hope that's not what I think it is.
Didn't they have little blast things to bust these things off in an emergency? So are you saying that might be not stable or what? I have no idea.
Great.
[Laughter.]
It's a really cool item.
The problem is, I don't know nearly enough about it.
And I don't even know if the thing's restorable.
There's mold on it or whatever this stuff is.
And this thing's got to go on a plane.
And there's guys out there right now restoring b-29s, and they're looking for these parts.
Let me get a buddy in here, and he'll take a look at it.
And he'll know a lot more about this thing than both of us combined.
All right? Cool.
All right, thanks.
How you doing today? Hey, is there a genie in the lamp? No.
I got a four-chamber whiskey bottle.
Hey, Rick.
What? There's no genie in it, but you might still want to I rubbed it already.
[Laughter.]
I came to the pawn shop today to sell my antique four-chamber whiskey bottle.
I got it at a garage sale.
It's very unique.
I've seen a lot of whiskey bottles, but I've never seen a four-chamber whiskey bottle.
Do you know anything about this thing? It's glass, not crystal.
But it's antique.
It's handmade.
You can tell that.
It's handblown glass, all the imperfections in it and everything.
It's from France.
Yeah, it's from France.
It says so right on the bottom.
It's a dead giveaway.
Do you know anything else about it? Well, in here, you can put some scotch, and over here, you can put some Tequila and then some more Tequila and then some more Tequila.
Tequila? That's why I'm feeling like I am this morning.
This thing is pretty cool.
But I don't know about putting whiskey and Tequila in the same bottle.
That's got "bad idea" written all over it.
It's in really great shape.
Problem is, I don't think it's worth a lot of money.
I mean, there's no manufacturer's mark on it anywhere.
If someone was really, really proud of it, they'd generally put their name on it, besides just "made in France" on the bottom of it.
It just looks like something that's decorative.
Well, somebody that's into glass and bottle clubs yeah, I mean, it's a nice, decorative piece.
But you don't have anything really special here.
It's neat that it's handblown glass and appears to be old.
But let's be honest.
It's not baccarat crystal.
I really don't see no value here, but it does look cool.
So what were you looking to do with it? Sell it.
How much were you looking to get out of it? I was thinking about 50 bucks.
Maybe one day, you'll find a genie to put in there.
[Laughter.]
I'll tell you what.
I'll give you 40 bucks for it.
$40? Okay.
Sweet, 40 bucks.
Chumlee, go write him up.
I paid $4 for it, but I got $40.
I'm happy.
I was asking $50, but $40 is good.
So you think it's off a ship? There are two sites that have yielded bars of this type.
If this thing is from a shipwreck What does that mean? It means it could be very, very valuable.
All right, it's time for a drink.
A drink of what? Chum-a-colada.
Oh, what the hell? Give me a shot.
Pour it, dude.
It looks like kool-aid.
It ain't gonna taste like kool-aid.
[Chuckling.]
Earlier today, a guy came in with a navigation observation dome from a b-29 world war ii aircraft.
But I've never seen one of these before, so I called in my buddy mark, who runs an aviation museum right here in town.
I run the Clark county museum and the aviation museum at mccarran airport.
Rick just calls me in when he get some unusual items.
And I've looked at a lot of stuff over the years.
You've got an astrodome.
These were used on a number of different aircraft.
The idea was that if you were doing long-distance flying, especially if you were flying over the ocean, there was no good way to navigate, so you had to use a sexton when you were navigating, just as if you were on a ship.
So you had a dome like this on large aircraft, mainly bombers and transports.
And you could stand up and actually take readings with your sexton from the stars, and you had a 360-degree view on it.
Now, they were used in a number of other ways as well.
Most notably, you were maintaining radio silence.
You would get up into this, and you would signal to the other planes using a lamp so that the enemy couldn't pick out where you were.
So they were an important part of aircraft.
Okay.
So what's your question on it, I guess, at this point? What is this? Oh, well, that's interesting.
I didn't know if that was, like, to blow it off or something like that in an emergency.
No, they didn't blow the hatch on the aircraft.
No, this was probably for getting rid of the static electricity that would build up on the exterior of the plane.
Okay.
So you think it's usable? It doesn't look to me like there's any real crazing on it.
It looks like the surface is intact.
No, this would be fine.
If you were restoring a b-50 or a c-97, this would be a wonderful piece to have.
You'd need to have it.
All right.
Well, thanks for coming in, mark.
I really appreciate it.
Not a problem.
Good to meet you.
So did you want to pawn it or sell it? I'll sell it.
Okay.
For me, it just it sounds like it's gonna be more trouble than it's worth.
[Laughs.]
And that's my problem at the moment.
Well, just make me an offer.
I mean, like I said, it's what's it worth to you? It's worth more than 100 bucks.
It is, but I'm a business guy.
I got to pay someone to be on the phone for a few days to sell this thing.
You know, I'm gonna have hundreds of dollars in labor tied up to maybe get 500 bucks out of it.
And that's why it's just not worth my time.
I'll keep it, then.
I'm sorry.
That's all I can really tell you.
Okay.
All right? Thanks for coming in.
I'm sorry we couldn't do business.
I think this thing is so cool.
It has a ton of history, and I would have loved to have bought it.
But it's one of those items that needs a particular buyer that's doing a very uncommon restoration.
So it's not smart business to get tied up in an item like this.
Hey, what can I help you with? I got some coal scrip coins.
When you worked for the coal mines, they'd pay you in these.
Okay, old coal coins.
Probably pay your employees with these.
My father would if he had a chance to.
[Laughter.]
[Whistle blowing.]
You get your ass over and go to work.
I decided to come to the pawn shop today to sell these coal scrip coins I have.
They're from the 1920s through the '40s.
Think these coins are worth up to $700 to $1,000.
I want to get as much as I could for them.
So where did you get these? My Uncle, he lived in Kentucky.
And when he died, he left them to me.
So did your Uncle work in the coal mines? He lived there.
I don't really know.
Even though there was coal production in the U.
S.
in the 1700s, the industry really didn't take off till the early 1800s with the industrial revolution and the rise of the locomotive.
Most of these coal mines were in really small towns in the middle of nowhere.
And it was a brutal existence.
These coins almost made the coal miners slaves.
I mean, when you were paid in a coin that was only accepted at a company store, literally, most people at the end of the week, after they paid their rent to the company and bought all their merchandise and their food and everything else from the company store, 'cause that's the only place you could spend money at, by the end of the week, you owe the company money.
That's why the old saying goes, "I owe my soul to the company store.
" It was a really, really terrible existence.
Imagine getting paid with money that was considered virtually worthless.
This system was designed to shackle workers and their families to the coal company way of life.
You know, it really is just strange just even looking at them.
It is a neat thing, though.
It's things we should keep around, because when you don't have these things to remind you of the past, you end up repeating it.
Yeah.
So what do you want to do with these things? Do you want to pawn them or sell them? Sell 'em.
And how much did you want for them? $500, they're all yours.
[Sighs.]
How about How about 300 bucks? How about $475? [Sighs.]
I'll give you $350.
Um, $425.
I'll meet you in the middle at $375.
There you go.
[Laughs.]
All right, let's go do some paperwork.
Cool.
I'm really excited to get these coins.
They're pretty rare, 'cause most of them were melted down for scrap during world war ii, which is a shame, 'cause they're an important part of American history.
I mean, some businesses around the world still pay their employees like this.
And that's why it's so important we keep reminders around.
Can I help you? Hi.
Yeah, I was wondering if you'd take a look at this collection of mine.
Okay.
They're American league baseball field passes from 1925 to, I believe, the '30s and '40s.
You don't look that old.
[Laughter.]
[Baseball bat cracks.]
[Crowd cheering.]
I decided to go into the pawn shop today to try and sell a collection of American league field passes.
I think these field passes are very special.
There's nothing like them anywhere, especially as a set.
So Where'd you get these? These were passed down through my family from my great-great-aunt.
She was a big baseball fan, and she met a sportswriter from the Chicago tribune on a train ride, and for 20 years after, he sent her these passes.
Okay, was there a little romantic thing going on there? I don't know.
That story got that story got lost? Yeah.
Back then, all the big newspapers had a team of sportswriters.
But they couldn't watch it on tv and report about it.
They traveled on the train to all the different games, and they reported on them right there.
There was only four games going on at any time anyway, because there was only eight teams.
The American league was founded in 1901, and there was a lot of leagues competing to stay afloat at the time.
The largest and most successful was the national league.
And the national league tried to shut down the upstart American league.
But the American league held on, and two years later, we had our first world series.
A few years ago, my mom took these to cooperstown with the intent to donate them to the baseball hall of fame.
The curator at the time took a look.
He said he couldn't in good conscious take them, because they could be worth a lot of money.
In addition to being old, these are extremely rare, and she has multiple sets spanning multiple decades.
Most sportswriters just threw these out at the end of a season.
I really want these, but it only makes sense if I can get them for the right price.
Did you want to pawn them or sell them? I was looking to sell them.
How much did you want for them? $2,000.
Mm, no.
Things like this, people are expecting to be worth a fortune.
Oh, a small fortune.
I know.
But I've seen auctions like this where these all sold for between $15 and $150.
Also, the ones I saw were from, like, Well, I mean, there should be some value to the collection as a whole.
I would offer you, like, 40 bucks apiece.
That's $40 times 25.
That's 1,000 bucks.
$1,500.
No.
There's got to be some in there that are worth more.
There are some in there that are worth more.
There are some worth less.
So let's average it, then.
We are.
$1,000.
I gave you my best shot.
Well, I guess I'm gonna have to take them back to cooperstown.
You know, it's one of those weird things where I might get lucky with them.
I might not.
I just I can't.
Okay, well, thanks for coming in.
I appreciate you showing them to me.
I really like them.
I'm a little disappointed.
He only offered $40 for each pass.
I just couldn't let them go for that.
It would be getting ripped off.
I just couldn't do it.
Earlier today, a guy came in with a large gold bar.
Normally, I would just pay him gold weight, which would be a little over $20,000.
But I think there may be pieces of coral on it, which makes me think it's been underwater a long time, which means it could be treasure and very, very valuable.
So I called in my buddy Mel to check it out.
I'm president of big blue wreck salvage and a marine artifact expert.
I'm passionate about the pursuit of history and information.
Well, what are your concerns, Rick? What the "xx" means, I have no idea.
And it looks like there's some crustation on the back of it that's not from casting.
Well, what you've got here are the fineness markings.
These particular stamps I recognize from the 1500s.
And even at that time, gold was evaluated on a 24 scale.
It's marked as 20-karat.
I could see with my own two eyes that that's more gold than 20-karat.
Well, they had taxes in the 1540s and 1550s also, so if you could get it marked for less, you can avoid some of those taxes.
I think it's pretty funny that even back in the 1500s, people were trying to cheat on their taxes.
Modern testing would bring this in at probably 22 or better.
Okay.
So you think it's off a ship? Well, what you have is definitely coral and crustation.
Coral will attach itself to something harder to grow.
Okay.
It would have taken, oh, decades to have attached itself.
This things was underwater for a long time.
And this is definitely shipwreck treasure.
Sweet.
Okay.
[Laughter.]
There are two sites that have yielded bars of this type.
One is from the coast of Texas.
The 1554 Spanish fleet was wrecked there.
And there's a site in the northern Caribbean.
So how much do you think it's worth? Melt times two is what you're talking about.
What does that mean? Remember earlier when I said $24,000 in scrap? Yeah.
"Scrap" is "melt.
" It's just like a trade term.
So you're telling me that's worth $48,000? In that neighborhood.
Yeah! That's what I'm talking about.
I'm gonna start melting down wedding bands and stamping "x"s on them.
If you can get the coral to grow on it.
I got a fish tank.
[Laughter.]
All right, well, thanks for coming in, Mel.
I appreciate it.
My pleasure.
There's probably not a lot of people out there willing to buy this thing.
But here's the deal.
The people that are are willing to spend a lot of money.
Trust me: A lot.
So now that we know, what do you want to do? I still want to sell it.
Okay.
And how much would you like for it? Well, if it's worth $48,000, I want $48,000.
Yeah, if money talks, we're talking different languages at the moment.
$44,000? No, because if I put this in an auction, they're gonna charge me 20% okay? All right.
I mean, I'll go, like, $32,000 on it.
Come on, you got to give me more than that.
It's worth $48,000.
Mm.
I'll give you $35,000, and I don't even want to pay you that.
Cash money.
All right.
$35,000.
Let's go do some paperwork.
I'm totally pumped to get $35,000.
It was a lot more than I expected.
So I'm pleased as punch to get that.
Everyone's been working really hard lately, so I figured I'd use this fancy liquor bottle and make everyone an adult beverage concoction.
This thing only has four chambers.
But it's perfect, 'cause I only have four bottles of booze.
It's time for a drink.
A drink of what? A drink of this.
What is it? Chum-a-colada.
Chumlee, what's in that? Don't worry about it.
It's good.
I'd never steer you wrong.
[Chuckling.]
What the hell is in it, chum? If you have to know, raspberry schnapps, apple schnapps, orange vodka, and a pink sparkling liqueur.
It's good.
I just don't recommend driving or operating heavy machinery after a few of these.
Oh, what the hell? Give me a shot.
Pour it, dude.
All right.
It looks like kool-aid.
It ain't gonna taste like kool-aid.
I don't think it will either.
It's nice that chumlee wants to make us all a drink.
But I hope it don't kill me.
All right, what's the toast gonna be to? All right, to all of us not getting killed by chum's alcohol concoction.
[Laughs.]
Yeah! That's what I'm talking about.
Oh, God.
[Babbling.]
It's disgusting.
Man, about three of those, and you would have a Tarzan moment.
You'd be beating on your chest for an hour.
Try it again.
No.
It's not that bad.
I mean, it looks like shipwreck stuff.
You mean, like buried treasure? It could be, yeah.
That's what I'm talking about.
Hey, what can I help you with? A collection of baseball field passes.
These are extremely rare.
The baseball hall of fame said they could be worth a lot of money.
This was used by the navigator of a b-29 superfortress.
Didn't they have little blast things to bust these things off? So are you saying that might be not stable? I have no idea.
Great.
I'm Rick Harrison, and this is my pawn shop.
I work here with my old man and my son, big hoss.
Everything in here has a story and a price.
One thing I've learned after 21 years, you never know what is gonna come through that door.
What have we got here? I got a gold bar I want you to look at.
All right.
Oh, wow.
Hey, pops.
You want to come look at this? Where in the world did you get this? My grandma just passed away a few months ago.
We were cleaning things out, and we found this thing.
Did grandpa happen to be a jewelry store robber or anything? [Laughter.]
[Sirens wailing.]
I came to the pawn shop today to see if I could sell my old gold bar.
This bar kind of really surprised us.
I never really heard about it, and nobody else had.
So I thought, "we got to go get this looked at and see what it's worth.
" What do you think, pops? It's gold.
It's a big chunk of gold.
You got approximately $24,000 worth of gold here.
Wow.
When you've been a pawn broker as long as I have, you know real gold when you see it.
And judging by the weight of it, there's a lot of it.
Before 1971, it was against the law to own this.
You weren't allowed to have more than, I think, five ounces of gold in your house, period.
It was a federal offense.
It was called the gold confiscation act.
Fdr, to end the depression, bought all the gold off everybody in the United States for $20 an ounce.
And it was up until the '70s when Nixon took us off the gold standard that we were allowed to own gold again.
There was a lot of people in this country who hid it because they didn't want the government taking it away.
During the depression, fdr made it illegal to own gold.
You could own a little bit of jewelry, a little bit of coins; That was it.
The reason he did this is, he wanted to devaluate the value of the dollar, hoping that would spur the economy along.
The weird thing about it is the markings on it right here.
What the "xx" means, I have no idea.
So what's the deal with this white stuff on there? Sometimes they cast this in a mold that's called investment.
It's like plaster of Paris but different.
And you'll have crustations like this in it.
It'll flake right out with your fingernail.
This feels like it's actually like coral or something.
I mean, it looks like shipwreck stuff, to tell you the truth.
You mean, like buried treasure? It could be, yeah.
Was your grandfather a diver or anything like that? I don't know if he was or not.
He was down in the Caribbean for a while.
And I don't know if he came across something there he didn't ever tell anybody about.
I buy gold from people every day.
But I never have gold bars from a shipwreck walk into my shop.
This thing might not be worth its weight in gold.
It might be worth way more.
So what did you want to do with this? You want to sell it? Yeah, I want to sell it.
I would like someone to take a look at it.
This could be off a ship just because of this right here.
So I'll find out if it's treasure for you.
That'd be great.
Okay.
Thanks.
What is that? A celestial navigation dome for a b-29 superfortress.
Okay, and where in the world did you get this thing? It's been in a barn for about 20 years.
Rats have chewed on the box, and, you know, it's old and damp in there.
Yeah, hope it's not dangerous to breathe in the fumes this thing's giving off.
[Laughter.]
Seriously.
[Triumphant music.]
I came to the pawn shop to sell my observation dome from a b-29 superfortress.
I refuse to tell these guys how much I paid for it, because they'll probably just try to lowball the [Bleep.]
Out of me.
This was used by the navigator to do celestial navigation at night.
His job was to make sure that plane was right where it was supposed to be on course.
Let me see.
Dome, navigator's observing.
Type a-1b.
Date of manufacture, 9-31-53.
This thing looks really cool.
I don't know much about it.
But apparently, they'd have a navigator looking out of this thing, using the sun and stars to navigate while they were in the air.
You have to remember, they didn't have GPS back then.
This is interesting.
I wonder what that's for.
I hope that's not what I think it is.
Didn't they have little blast things to bust these things off in an emergency? So are you saying that might be not stable or what? I have no idea.
Great.
[Laughter.]
It's a really cool item.
The problem is, I don't know nearly enough about it.
And I don't even know if the thing's restorable.
There's mold on it or whatever this stuff is.
And this thing's got to go on a plane.
And there's guys out there right now restoring b-29s, and they're looking for these parts.
Let me get a buddy in here, and he'll take a look at it.
And he'll know a lot more about this thing than both of us combined.
All right? Cool.
All right, thanks.
How you doing today? Hey, is there a genie in the lamp? No.
I got a four-chamber whiskey bottle.
Hey, Rick.
What? There's no genie in it, but you might still want to I rubbed it already.
[Laughter.]
I came to the pawn shop today to sell my antique four-chamber whiskey bottle.
I got it at a garage sale.
It's very unique.
I've seen a lot of whiskey bottles, but I've never seen a four-chamber whiskey bottle.
Do you know anything about this thing? It's glass, not crystal.
But it's antique.
It's handmade.
You can tell that.
It's handblown glass, all the imperfections in it and everything.
It's from France.
Yeah, it's from France.
It says so right on the bottom.
It's a dead giveaway.
Do you know anything else about it? Well, in here, you can put some scotch, and over here, you can put some Tequila and then some more Tequila and then some more Tequila.
Tequila? That's why I'm feeling like I am this morning.
This thing is pretty cool.
But I don't know about putting whiskey and Tequila in the same bottle.
That's got "bad idea" written all over it.
It's in really great shape.
Problem is, I don't think it's worth a lot of money.
I mean, there's no manufacturer's mark on it anywhere.
If someone was really, really proud of it, they'd generally put their name on it, besides just "made in France" on the bottom of it.
It just looks like something that's decorative.
Well, somebody that's into glass and bottle clubs yeah, I mean, it's a nice, decorative piece.
But you don't have anything really special here.
It's neat that it's handblown glass and appears to be old.
But let's be honest.
It's not baccarat crystal.
I really don't see no value here, but it does look cool.
So what were you looking to do with it? Sell it.
How much were you looking to get out of it? I was thinking about 50 bucks.
Maybe one day, you'll find a genie to put in there.
[Laughter.]
I'll tell you what.
I'll give you 40 bucks for it.
$40? Okay.
Sweet, 40 bucks.
Chumlee, go write him up.
I paid $4 for it, but I got $40.
I'm happy.
I was asking $50, but $40 is good.
So you think it's off a ship? There are two sites that have yielded bars of this type.
If this thing is from a shipwreck What does that mean? It means it could be very, very valuable.
All right, it's time for a drink.
A drink of what? Chum-a-colada.
Oh, what the hell? Give me a shot.
Pour it, dude.
It looks like kool-aid.
It ain't gonna taste like kool-aid.
[Chuckling.]
Earlier today, a guy came in with a navigation observation dome from a b-29 world war ii aircraft.
But I've never seen one of these before, so I called in my buddy mark, who runs an aviation museum right here in town.
I run the Clark county museum and the aviation museum at mccarran airport.
Rick just calls me in when he get some unusual items.
And I've looked at a lot of stuff over the years.
You've got an astrodome.
These were used on a number of different aircraft.
The idea was that if you were doing long-distance flying, especially if you were flying over the ocean, there was no good way to navigate, so you had to use a sexton when you were navigating, just as if you were on a ship.
So you had a dome like this on large aircraft, mainly bombers and transports.
And you could stand up and actually take readings with your sexton from the stars, and you had a 360-degree view on it.
Now, they were used in a number of other ways as well.
Most notably, you were maintaining radio silence.
You would get up into this, and you would signal to the other planes using a lamp so that the enemy couldn't pick out where you were.
So they were an important part of aircraft.
Okay.
So what's your question on it, I guess, at this point? What is this? Oh, well, that's interesting.
I didn't know if that was, like, to blow it off or something like that in an emergency.
No, they didn't blow the hatch on the aircraft.
No, this was probably for getting rid of the static electricity that would build up on the exterior of the plane.
Okay.
So you think it's usable? It doesn't look to me like there's any real crazing on it.
It looks like the surface is intact.
No, this would be fine.
If you were restoring a b-50 or a c-97, this would be a wonderful piece to have.
You'd need to have it.
All right.
Well, thanks for coming in, mark.
I really appreciate it.
Not a problem.
Good to meet you.
So did you want to pawn it or sell it? I'll sell it.
Okay.
For me, it just it sounds like it's gonna be more trouble than it's worth.
[Laughs.]
And that's my problem at the moment.
Well, just make me an offer.
I mean, like I said, it's what's it worth to you? It's worth more than 100 bucks.
It is, but I'm a business guy.
I got to pay someone to be on the phone for a few days to sell this thing.
You know, I'm gonna have hundreds of dollars in labor tied up to maybe get 500 bucks out of it.
And that's why it's just not worth my time.
I'll keep it, then.
I'm sorry.
That's all I can really tell you.
Okay.
All right? Thanks for coming in.
I'm sorry we couldn't do business.
I think this thing is so cool.
It has a ton of history, and I would have loved to have bought it.
But it's one of those items that needs a particular buyer that's doing a very uncommon restoration.
So it's not smart business to get tied up in an item like this.
Hey, what can I help you with? I got some coal scrip coins.
When you worked for the coal mines, they'd pay you in these.
Okay, old coal coins.
Probably pay your employees with these.
My father would if he had a chance to.
[Laughter.]
[Whistle blowing.]
You get your ass over and go to work.
I decided to come to the pawn shop today to sell these coal scrip coins I have.
They're from the 1920s through the '40s.
Think these coins are worth up to $700 to $1,000.
I want to get as much as I could for them.
So where did you get these? My Uncle, he lived in Kentucky.
And when he died, he left them to me.
So did your Uncle work in the coal mines? He lived there.
I don't really know.
Even though there was coal production in the U.
S.
in the 1700s, the industry really didn't take off till the early 1800s with the industrial revolution and the rise of the locomotive.
Most of these coal mines were in really small towns in the middle of nowhere.
And it was a brutal existence.
These coins almost made the coal miners slaves.
I mean, when you were paid in a coin that was only accepted at a company store, literally, most people at the end of the week, after they paid their rent to the company and bought all their merchandise and their food and everything else from the company store, 'cause that's the only place you could spend money at, by the end of the week, you owe the company money.
That's why the old saying goes, "I owe my soul to the company store.
" It was a really, really terrible existence.
Imagine getting paid with money that was considered virtually worthless.
This system was designed to shackle workers and their families to the coal company way of life.
You know, it really is just strange just even looking at them.
It is a neat thing, though.
It's things we should keep around, because when you don't have these things to remind you of the past, you end up repeating it.
Yeah.
So what do you want to do with these things? Do you want to pawn them or sell them? Sell 'em.
And how much did you want for them? $500, they're all yours.
[Sighs.]
How about How about 300 bucks? How about $475? [Sighs.]
I'll give you $350.
Um, $425.
I'll meet you in the middle at $375.
There you go.
[Laughs.]
All right, let's go do some paperwork.
Cool.
I'm really excited to get these coins.
They're pretty rare, 'cause most of them were melted down for scrap during world war ii, which is a shame, 'cause they're an important part of American history.
I mean, some businesses around the world still pay their employees like this.
And that's why it's so important we keep reminders around.
Can I help you? Hi.
Yeah, I was wondering if you'd take a look at this collection of mine.
Okay.
They're American league baseball field passes from 1925 to, I believe, the '30s and '40s.
You don't look that old.
[Laughter.]
[Baseball bat cracks.]
[Crowd cheering.]
I decided to go into the pawn shop today to try and sell a collection of American league field passes.
I think these field passes are very special.
There's nothing like them anywhere, especially as a set.
So Where'd you get these? These were passed down through my family from my great-great-aunt.
She was a big baseball fan, and she met a sportswriter from the Chicago tribune on a train ride, and for 20 years after, he sent her these passes.
Okay, was there a little romantic thing going on there? I don't know.
That story got that story got lost? Yeah.
Back then, all the big newspapers had a team of sportswriters.
But they couldn't watch it on tv and report about it.
They traveled on the train to all the different games, and they reported on them right there.
There was only four games going on at any time anyway, because there was only eight teams.
The American league was founded in 1901, and there was a lot of leagues competing to stay afloat at the time.
The largest and most successful was the national league.
And the national league tried to shut down the upstart American league.
But the American league held on, and two years later, we had our first world series.
A few years ago, my mom took these to cooperstown with the intent to donate them to the baseball hall of fame.
The curator at the time took a look.
He said he couldn't in good conscious take them, because they could be worth a lot of money.
In addition to being old, these are extremely rare, and she has multiple sets spanning multiple decades.
Most sportswriters just threw these out at the end of a season.
I really want these, but it only makes sense if I can get them for the right price.
Did you want to pawn them or sell them? I was looking to sell them.
How much did you want for them? $2,000.
Mm, no.
Things like this, people are expecting to be worth a fortune.
Oh, a small fortune.
I know.
But I've seen auctions like this where these all sold for between $15 and $150.
Also, the ones I saw were from, like, Well, I mean, there should be some value to the collection as a whole.
I would offer you, like, 40 bucks apiece.
That's $40 times 25.
That's 1,000 bucks.
$1,500.
No.
There's got to be some in there that are worth more.
There are some in there that are worth more.
There are some worth less.
So let's average it, then.
We are.
$1,000.
I gave you my best shot.
Well, I guess I'm gonna have to take them back to cooperstown.
You know, it's one of those weird things where I might get lucky with them.
I might not.
I just I can't.
Okay, well, thanks for coming in.
I appreciate you showing them to me.
I really like them.
I'm a little disappointed.
He only offered $40 for each pass.
I just couldn't let them go for that.
It would be getting ripped off.
I just couldn't do it.
Earlier today, a guy came in with a large gold bar.
Normally, I would just pay him gold weight, which would be a little over $20,000.
But I think there may be pieces of coral on it, which makes me think it's been underwater a long time, which means it could be treasure and very, very valuable.
So I called in my buddy Mel to check it out.
I'm president of big blue wreck salvage and a marine artifact expert.
I'm passionate about the pursuit of history and information.
Well, what are your concerns, Rick? What the "xx" means, I have no idea.
And it looks like there's some crustation on the back of it that's not from casting.
Well, what you've got here are the fineness markings.
These particular stamps I recognize from the 1500s.
And even at that time, gold was evaluated on a 24 scale.
It's marked as 20-karat.
I could see with my own two eyes that that's more gold than 20-karat.
Well, they had taxes in the 1540s and 1550s also, so if you could get it marked for less, you can avoid some of those taxes.
I think it's pretty funny that even back in the 1500s, people were trying to cheat on their taxes.
Modern testing would bring this in at probably 22 or better.
Okay.
So you think it's off a ship? Well, what you have is definitely coral and crustation.
Coral will attach itself to something harder to grow.
Okay.
It would have taken, oh, decades to have attached itself.
This things was underwater for a long time.
And this is definitely shipwreck treasure.
Sweet.
Okay.
[Laughter.]
There are two sites that have yielded bars of this type.
One is from the coast of Texas.
The 1554 Spanish fleet was wrecked there.
And there's a site in the northern Caribbean.
So how much do you think it's worth? Melt times two is what you're talking about.
What does that mean? Remember earlier when I said $24,000 in scrap? Yeah.
"Scrap" is "melt.
" It's just like a trade term.
So you're telling me that's worth $48,000? In that neighborhood.
Yeah! That's what I'm talking about.
I'm gonna start melting down wedding bands and stamping "x"s on them.
If you can get the coral to grow on it.
I got a fish tank.
[Laughter.]
All right, well, thanks for coming in, Mel.
I appreciate it.
My pleasure.
There's probably not a lot of people out there willing to buy this thing.
But here's the deal.
The people that are are willing to spend a lot of money.
Trust me: A lot.
So now that we know, what do you want to do? I still want to sell it.
Okay.
And how much would you like for it? Well, if it's worth $48,000, I want $48,000.
Yeah, if money talks, we're talking different languages at the moment.
$44,000? No, because if I put this in an auction, they're gonna charge me 20% okay? All right.
I mean, I'll go, like, $32,000 on it.
Come on, you got to give me more than that.
It's worth $48,000.
Mm.
I'll give you $35,000, and I don't even want to pay you that.
Cash money.
All right.
$35,000.
Let's go do some paperwork.
I'm totally pumped to get $35,000.
It was a lot more than I expected.
So I'm pleased as punch to get that.
Everyone's been working really hard lately, so I figured I'd use this fancy liquor bottle and make everyone an adult beverage concoction.
This thing only has four chambers.
But it's perfect, 'cause I only have four bottles of booze.
It's time for a drink.
A drink of what? A drink of this.
What is it? Chum-a-colada.
Chumlee, what's in that? Don't worry about it.
It's good.
I'd never steer you wrong.
[Chuckling.]
What the hell is in it, chum? If you have to know, raspberry schnapps, apple schnapps, orange vodka, and a pink sparkling liqueur.
It's good.
I just don't recommend driving or operating heavy machinery after a few of these.
Oh, what the hell? Give me a shot.
Pour it, dude.
All right.
It looks like kool-aid.
It ain't gonna taste like kool-aid.
I don't think it will either.
It's nice that chumlee wants to make us all a drink.
But I hope it don't kill me.
All right, what's the toast gonna be to? All right, to all of us not getting killed by chum's alcohol concoction.
[Laughs.]
Yeah! That's what I'm talking about.
Oh, God.
[Babbling.]
It's disgusting.
Man, about three of those, and you would have a Tarzan moment.
You'd be beating on your chest for an hour.
Try it again.
No.
It's not that bad.