In this case someone bought the coin, in 1986. Likely all they knew of the story was from the catalog description. In this case the coin was Lot 1326 in Heritage Numismatic Auctions 1986 A.N.A. Mid-Winter Auction sale, February 20-22, 1986 held in Salt Lake City. This coin was plated in black and white on page 42 of the sale catalog, with an obverse photo in color included on page 41.

The catalog noted at the top of page 42:

These silver dollars were from the collection of Frank M. Stirling of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Frank Stirling died in Baton Rouge on September 18, 1984 at the age of 78. Stirling was a true and knowledgeable Numismatist. And as a side note, this was not the major portion of his collection; none-the-less this was an exceptional offering of 25 early silver dollars.

Now for the fun part. In April 2005 I acquired copies of Frank Stirling's correspondence and notes from the Stirling family. In looking through these files the other day I came across a number of letters between Stirling and B. Max Mehl, the famous Fort Worth coin dealer, a couple of which shed some additional light on this coin.