Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

By Tom Mooney
Journal staff writer

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SEEKONK, Mass. -- Scores of wishful thinkers descended on the Ramada Inn today carrying their old gold and coins in hopes of making a few dollars.

The event, which extends through Saturday, is being run by a company called Anderson, Carter Tyre & Associates, which is offering cash for items it feels are worthwhile.

Organizers rented out a wing of first-floor hotel rooms where 15 buyers waited in their individual rooms to appraise the goods coming in. Workers directed visitors looking to sell coins to rooms on one side of the hall, jewelry sales to the other.

Most of those arriving this morning were middle-aged women and elderly couples. Much of what they were prepared to part with, they said, had just been hanging around the house for years -- if the price was right. Their motivation? Curiosity more than economic desperation.

Tom Zelano of Johnston drove his mother, Lucy, to the event on the one-year anniversary of his father's passing. They brought with them an envelope stuffed with German and Japanese currency, which Robert A. Selano, a World War II veteran, had collected during the war.

"I saw the ad in the newspaper and thought, `What am I going to do with it?' Let's go see what we can do,'' said Lucy Zelano.

She was disappointed in the end. An appraiser offered her only 3 cents for each bill. She told her son to hand on to the money: "In another 20 years they may be worth something.''

 Tags  Seekonk

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