Millions in stolen coins! WOW!
illini420
Posts: 11,466 ✭✭✭✭✭
This just came in the email... WOW! Hope they get recovered quickly!
Rare Stolen Coins
The La Plata County Sheriff's Department Durango, Colorado has requested the assistance of NCIC with a case involving the theft of the following three coins.
No other case details available at this time
1894-San Francisco Barber Dime. It had received a grade number of NGC PF63 and had a serial number of 3580552001. Estimated value of $1,225,000.00
1652- Willow Tree 6 Pence. It had received a grade number of PCGS MS64 and had a serial number of 15-64-11163562 Estimated value of $472,000.00
1794- Flowing Hair Dollar. It had received a grade number of PCGS XF45 and had a serial number of 6851-45-08888779. Estimated value of $379,500.00
La Plata County SO Case# S19-06050
Anyone with information immediately contact:
Luke Harrington
Criminal Investigations Unit
La Plata County Sheriff's Office
742 Turner Drive
Durango, CO 81303
P:970-382-7044
F:970-247-9602
or
Doug Davis
817-723-7231
Doug@numismaticcrimes.org
Michael Kittle Rare Coins --- 1908-S Indian Head Cent Grading Set --- No. 1 1909 Mint Set --- Kittlecoins on Facebook --- Long Beach Table 448
Comments
1894-S DIME!?!?!?!
I wish it were April 1st...WOW!
That was my first thought when I saw the email...
Probably one of the few times where I hope the thieves know exactly what they took... can you imagine these going through the local coinstar! Very unlikely, I know.
Michael Kittle Rare Coins --- 1908-S Indian Head Cent Grading Set --- No. 1 1909 Mint Set --- Kittlecoins on Facebook --- Long Beach Table 448
Here's a pic of the dime that was posted on FaceBook eariler:
Michael Kittle Rare Coins --- 1908-S Indian Head Cent Grading Set --- No. 1 1909 Mint Set --- Kittlecoins on Facebook --- Long Beach Table 448
Wow, I’m speechless. That’s some very expensive stuff lost. Was it a break-in? Hopefully there’re some leads to finding everything safe and sound.
Always buying nice toned coins! Searching for a low grade 1873 Arrows DDO Dime and 1842-O Small Date Quarter.
Wow, speechless. Likely an inside job. Durango has some nice and pricey homes to go with those coins. Beautiful area, small community, tight knit except perhaps now (ski season) as a lot of tourists come and go. Great fishing by the way!
Hope the perp was caught on camera! (see other thread).
bob
That is some serious coin.
Collector, occasional seller
I'm speechless. I hope they're recovered ASAP!!!
Who is that careless?
EAC 6024
The NGC coin has the standard slab photos. The Willow Tree has photos from CRO's archives.
Without any details, how can you conclude careless? Those look like a targeted list.
It's hard to know much without more details. They could have been the only 3 coins there.
Hope they catch the bastards.
Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value. Zero. Voltaire. Ebay coinbowlllc
If they know what they took, I'd think it may be harder to recover them.
If they don't, they'd be pretty easy to identify if sold to a coin dealer.
Wow! What a terrible loss!
I would think such high profile coins would be hard to sell unless on the black market or overseas for pennies on the dollar.
I'm thinking a "Thomas Crown Affair" style situation, and very short-sighted. No one is ever going to NOT know that that 1894-S was stolen. You could never show it to or discuss it with anyone. Just sit in a dark room by yourself and stare at it I guess.
I deleted my original post because I felt that it reflected bad on the Durango police department. Not good. I'm sure they try their best. Many of us have law enforcement people in our families. They have a difficult job. God Bless them all.
They were the only three coins under the victims pillow.
The rest were all lonely in the safe.
Don't think many people knows about those stolen coins. Couldn't find any appearance of any at auctions.
I looked too. Didn't find Heritage listings for any of them or photos of the PCGS coins
Holy shmokes! Glad everyone is ok. I have a feeling these coins will be sold for easy money and will quietly leave the country for destinations unknown.
"A dog breaks your heart only one time and that is when they pass on". Unknown
How does one "fence" a 94-S dime??!! Unless the thief has a buyer that just likes to drool over stolen loot and keep it to himself...
Successful BST transactions with: SilverEagles92; Ahrensdad; Smitty; GregHansen; Lablade; Mercury10c; copperflopper; whatsup; KISHU1; scrapman1077, crispy, canadanz, smallchange, robkool, Mission16, ranshdow, ibzman350, Fallguy, Collectorcoins, SurfinxHI, jwitten, Walkerguy21D, dsessom.
Impossible to sell on the open market with out notice. What were they thinking?
Hope they are returned to right full owners.
Inside job!
100% Positive BST transactions
The coins are impossible to sell in the legitimate market. Is there a "dark" market for coins like this in the criminal underworld?
I lived in Durango from 1974-78 while going to college there.
I wonder how these three coins ended up in Durango and I wonder what the details of the theft were. I doubt the theft was random.
Maybe they where just misplaced as 3 slabs isn't much more than a TV remote.
Note to self... don't talk about baseball cards and coins at the poker game.
I just read a story last week about a Picasso (?) that was recovered after a couple decades.
The article stated that rare Art (and I guess rare coins) is used as collateral in the underworld for drug deals etc...
BST: KindaNewish (3/21/21), WQuarterFreddie (3/30/21), Meltdown (4/6/21), DBSTrader2 (5/5/21) AKA- unclemonkey on Blow Out
This was a targeted theft... I do not know the other details, however, if just those three coins were taken - and others were available - then the thieves knew exactly what they wanted. Would love to know more about this... Cheers, RickO
Holy Jesus. First the aluminum pattern Morgan and now this. These are items that can never be randomly fenced so I'm wondering if there is a new big-money "dark" collector out there putting out calls to the underground world (probably using the Dark Web) saying they will pay big money for uber rare coins... Just thinking outside the box.
I used to own that Willow Tree 6p - it is shown in my website archive. it is a well known coin.
Coin Rarities Online
Sad any time a theft occurs,
but it is a tragedy when a truly rare coin like the 94-s dime is stolen.
It is always my fear that when the heat closes in, someone may destroy it in a rash attempt to dispose of the evidence.
And so goes our history with it
Dead Cat Waltz Exonumia
"Coin collecting for outcasts..."
A coin like that will not be seen again for a long time and more than likely will be “housed” “overseas”...
Thanks! Here's a link and the photos. I've also added the link to my post above so it's complete. It's a pop 6/1/0 with 14 known. Hope it's found!
Ex Stack's October 2005 sale of the John J. Ford, Jr. Collection, Part XII, lot #10; earlier the collection of F.C.C. Boyd; earlier the Noe plate coin; earlier the collection of Carl Wurtzbach and the Wurtzbach plate coin; earlier Spink & Sons 1935 sale of the W.S. Lincoln Collection, etc., etc.
I remember recovering a stolen 1804 Dollar.......
Suppose the 1894-s dime is lost forever, does that make the remaining specimens more valuable?
Knowledge is the enemy of fear
I'm going to throw up a bulletin on my Youtube. Hopefully these pieces will be recovered soon!
Shaun
BlueRidgeSilverHound
Ok, this is a bad and sad situation and I am sorry for the owners and their loss.
The owner probably also were a bit careless as to the location of the coins and the easy access for thieves
And the thieves must have known these coins were there.
However that is, I have a few questions. I know these are more than a few questions, but...:
1 why does it say Newcomer on the slab?
2 where the coins insured?
3 Is the 1894-S dime ONE only coin known, or are there a few others?
4 Same for the others that are missing.
5 The police is asking for the coin communities help, but is not providing any details??? why not??
for example even finding an empty slab somewhere by a child for example could be a lead.
6 a Question to our host and everyone else: **
**how far advanced is the positive Identification of slabs or coins with, for example, micro RIF tags?
It seems to me that these could even be close to invisible....... slabs with tags can be tracked to a location...
**7 my imagination runs wild and thinks_ it could be a theft of rare originals for copies to be made.._
Not nearly all that impossible. Lets wait and see what shows up from HKG, PEK or PVG in the future.
and
7 does anyone think for a minute that these coins will stay in slabs? If they are not the ONLY coins, in any grade, they already by now have another appearance and look. Who cares if they have dings and scratches and one by one over time will be found within some large collection anywhere in the world. unless the coin can be positively Identified in any grade and condition, it will never be proven.
Have some imagination and think. Unless they were "an order" , only stupid thieves would try to sell them "as is" at a flea market etc.
I wish the owners the best of luck and hope these coins will be recovered without being damaged.
And I hope the crooks get caught, thrown in jail and the key lost.
“Millions “ in coins stolen and I haven’t heard that Fort Knox has been breached.
But you are right, without all the details, who knows.
EAC 6024
Years back there was a dealer that was robbed and killed. One higher profile coin was taken along with others. (nothing as high profile as these coins) The coin was held for 4 years before they attempted to sell it, the first time they took it out they were arrested for the murder of the coin dealer.
Are they serving time? Are they on death row?
I'm sure they are still serving time but I don't remember hearing the final conviction or anything about the death penalty.
The big dealers on the forum know who lives in CA and owned the coins. Sooner or later we'll find out if it is one of our members or a sports icon.
IIRC, it was a 1909 S vdb in MS-65 or 66 with a unique woodgrain toning. In the Las Vegas or southern Utah area.
Found it.
https://www.ksl.com/article/76657/campbell-pleads-guilty-in-coin-dealer-homicide
This article indicates Daniel Robert Campbell was sentenced to 5 years to life. His accomplice, Todd Wayne Mulder, was also apprehended at the time.
At least it seems no one was killed here.
https://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/man-extradited-from-nevada-to-face-charges-in-murder/article_f0d855a2-6d49-538c-b079-310bd5a4e641.html
The one point that sticks out like a sore thumb is indeed if these will be cracked out. While coins have unique "fingerprint" identification, like that Willow Tree sixpence, the Barber can be cracked out and dipped to eliminate that unique toning pattern. Unfortunately, little modification is necessary to wipe out clear id traits of some coins. I'm sure there are other methods.
People have been pretty good at identifying rare, toned coins that have been dipped or rare, white coins that have been ATed.
Unfortunately, while that may help with identification, the coin may still be ruined.
there are a few iconic coins---the 1894-S is one of them Regardless of what is done to this coin, I am convinced whoever buys it will know it is stolen
The duPont Family ransomed back many of the coins that were stolen from them. Hopefully the thieves will try this rather than destroying the coins.
Is there not a bank close by with a safe deposit box? How does that not concern insurance? My collection is nowhere this value, but thanks to Todd I have great pictures and piece of mind.