Have you ever had coins stolen?

Mark

I was "talking" with another board member via pm and he mentioned that at one time his coins were stolen. I've never had any of my coins stolen. But I started wondering--have you had coins stolen? Did this event put you off collecting for a while or did it have no effect? And did you ever recover any of your coins?

It might also be interesting if you never had any coins stolen so that we can get a better idea what fraction of us have had coins stolen.

I'll start: As I said, I've never had any coins stolen.

To the extent that you want to share any stories, thanks in advance.

Mark

BillJones

I've never had a coin stolen (knock on wood) but a guy did lift a $100 bill from me at a show. I didn't have 100% proof, but needless to say, he's not welcome at my table.

jdimmick

No, thankfully not!

I dont keep my core collection at home. Only pieces that I dabble with. Some of the pieces in my core collection are only worth about 10k, but irreplaceable currently. An example would be my 01-s quarter. Would be virtually impossible to locate another with the same eye-appeal and quality for the grade as it is.

jim

Cherwood

I know my mom's boyfriend had a bunch of coins stolen from his car at a coin show. And no, he never recovered them.

Cheryl

MICHAELDIXON

When I was doing the Aloha Swapmeet in Hawaii, I had an 1827 MS63 Bust half, an MS61 3c silver and a proof Franklin stolen. I had just taken the half in on consignment and showed it to a young Vietnamese boy. I was talking to somebody and I saw a small hand come into the case and before I could get around the table, he was GONE! I knew his parents were sellers there, but it took me 5 weeks to catch him. My wife cornered him and I got the police. We took him back to his parents and he had removed the coins from their cases and placed them on a wooden table under clothes where they now had slide marks. To keep me from pressing charges, the parents paid me the difference between AU and MS63 on the half, AU and MS61 on the 3c and paid for the proof Franklin. I was sick when this happened.

abmluce

way back in 7th grade I had a liberty head nickel and some mexican coins stolen from me at school.
One of my first brushes with reality

Clankeye

Yes. My apartment was broken into while I was away one night, and all my coins were taken. This was maybe seven years ago. I was in kind of a lull of my collecting, and I had sold a lot of things off (which I am glad about) but, what I had left they took. All classic commems.

It certainly did bother me, but I had been remiss to just leave them sitting around the house. It took me a little bounce back time, but obviously I did return to collecting.

There are a couple of coins in my past (only a couple) that I regret selling--but then I think about being robbed, and I know that I would have lost them anyway. So I feel a little better about that.


Clankeye

Russ

Yes. My shop was broken in to twice in under two months the fall of 2002. During the first breakin some coins were stolen. Nothing of real value, though, just some trinket caliber stuff that was laying on the desk in my office.

Russ, NCNE

DorkGirl

I thankfully have not, I keep most of my coins in the bank too, but I heard a terrible story from my coin dealer not too long ago. We were talking about coin clubs, why there weren't any here in town. (Someone at a local auction had approached me about starting one.) She told me that the last one ended very badly. The secretary for the club had all the members addresses and one night while they were all at a meeting, she had someone break into all their homes and steal their coins. So, the closest I'll ever come to joining a coin club is here in this forum. I so appreciate the knowledge I have gained in my short time here----Thanks everyone!!!!

edsondl

Yes,

I made the mistake of trying to sell a Silver 2000 Proof set at a yard sale. Needless to say, I did not pay close enough attention to the table where I had set it and somebody took it. And I never got the coins back.

MrPlatinum

I got hit at gun point when I left Brinks LA last year, they never recovered any of the coins that were taken.

It's not a fun thing when that happens but oh well, you learn to live with the risks.

MrEureka

As far as I know, the only coins ever stolen from me were stolen by a "friend" visiting my house. I was 11 or 12 at the time and the coins were taken from my bedroom. Maybe a few hundred bucks worth of stuff. I was upset, of course, but that night after discovering the loss we brought in Chinese food for dinner. I opened my fortune cookie and there was no fortune inside. I laughed and pretty much never thought about the coins again.

kranky

I've never had any taken but I keep them in the bank anyway.

A couple years ago I had plans to meet a board member at a show. When I walked up to introduce myself, he was talking to a cop. Someone had lifted a box of slabbed Morgans just before I arrived by reaching over the table when his back was turned. I figured it would be better if I came back a little later!

poorguy

I know that by posting to this forum, I am reminding fate that I am here, just waiting to be robbed. Since I am "fairly" new to this hobby at 23 years old, I haven't given fate enough time to smack with with reality. The only homes our family has known have been run-down apartement complexes and I guess no one would figure our family could afford this hobby, so I guess we are safe for now.

I was robbed once, but it was a doosie with a sweet ending.

I was working at an Express Inn in Louisiana back in 1999 as night auditor with another fellow named Jason. Jason was eating "lunch" around midnight and watching tv in the continental breakfast room in the lobby and I was working the desk. I noticed a tall black man wearing a big puffy basketball team Starter Jacket and sporting a wool skullcap walk into the lobby and down the hall. I didn't think much of it. I figured he was a guest getting back late from the Indian casino settled nearby. It was about 10 minutes later when I heard a knock at the office side-door. I figured Jason had finished eating and was ready to come back into the desk-area. As soon at I turned the handle, the tall black guy rams through the door and knocks me against the wall. I immediately push back to get him back through the door. During the struggle, I noticed he had a 9mm handgun in his hand and immediately backed up. "Where's the safe", the guy said with a nervous voice. Being night auditor, there is no-one on the premises who has a key to the safe. There isn't much money in it anyways because people 90% of the time pay via credit. We did have plenty of credit card #'s, Cardholder names, and exp. dates, but the obviously brilliant mastermind wanted cold hard cash. His immediate reaction to the realization that he wasn't gonna get rich quick was to pistol-whip me across the face. He then demanded cash from the register. Hotels don't have registers but only change drawers, but they usually a moderate amount of cash in them. Luckily, our loser-thief friend didn't know there were two change drawers. I then opened the one with the nickel, dime, and penny rolls with about 10 or 15 bucks in bills. He filled his greedy pockets with the heavy change and took off for the door. The other drawer had approximately $350.00 in large bills and quarter rolls. I called went into the breakfast area where Jason was sitting and said "we've been robbed." Jason turned around and saw my face split open from my bottom lip to about mid chin. He got up and we called the cops. Cops came, yadda yadda. After that I picked his sorry a** out of a lineup 2 weeks later. That SOB now has 25 years to drop the soap and take it where it hurts. All because I saw his ugly face and he was stupid enough to rob an "Express" hotel no-less. To top it all off, my boss didn't even know about it because her son was on the internet until 6 in the morning. She got to work at 7. She didn't even offer to cover a visit to the hospital. I saved that B*#@! $350 bucks and she doesn't even give me a raise. Oh well, at least I got to put someone away until my kids get out of college. ha ha hahahaha.

The moral of the story: If you are robbed, there are 2 registers, and the thief cleans out the pennyroll drawer, don't wait and see if your boss is going to give you a raise. Give yourself a raise and take the money in the second drawer.

Naaaa, it's much funner to reap the rewards of getting a good look at the dirtbag's face and being able to pick his sorry butt out of a lineup.

Thats the story of the time I was robbed.

Knocking on wood so I don't get robbed tonight.

mgoodm3

I was robbed of almost all of my childhood collection, by a realtor who would get into the lockboxes on houses being sold and would rob them.

Mikey

No, but I did steal some of my brothers mercury dimes for candy when I was about 12 years old.

Dave99B

Some crack-head loser broke into my house about 15 years ago. Luckily my collection was at the bank, but I did lose 20 rolls of 90% silver quarters, as well as my CD collection. Pissed me off. All of the rolls were from the 30s, basically junk silver I had sorted out of dealers 4 or 5 x face boxes over the years.

Kind of a cool stash. They were in the top drawer of my dresser (he didn't have to look too hard).

The insurance company would only pay face value, due to a clause in my H/O insurance....

OUCH!

Dave

Oldnewbie

About 15 years ago I was going through a divorce and really didn't have my head on straight. I was still living with my soon to be ex-wife and her sister. I had pulled my collection out of a deposit box and was keeping it in my closet. My sister-in-law needed party money and in 2 days I lost a collection I started when I was 5 yrs old. I was 34 at the time. There were a lot of coins that were passed down to me and many more that I earned myself as a kid working the local golf course. I couldn't look at the shell of what was left until a month or two ago. I decided to rebuild it to the best of my memory. The best part is that I'm having fun again doing it.

Mark

Some interesting stories...and a couple of scary ones, too. I am ttt'ing this so that morning crew can add anything they wish.

Mark

1957joe

my son had one of the neighborhood kids in the house playing. I had a bunch of darkside coins in a drawer and this kid helped himself to a handfull of them. I didn't even know they were missing until his parents saw them and made him bring them back. Funny thing was, I would have given them and MORE if he would have asked. Now he is banned from the house. I won't even let my kids hang out with him!

Conder101

I've had a fewcoins stolen over the years, nothing major. The only piece that really sticks in my memory is a 1902 proof V nickel with a nice major lamination on the reverse at 10:00. An area about 3/16th inches square is flaked out of the coin. You don't see to many early proofs with major errors.

ms70

These are scary stories. I guess in this hobby/business you always have to be alert when you least expect you'd have to be.

poptopsRus

I think every dealer has been hit one time or another. We had a coin lifted last Long Beach but fortunately they caught the guy and we got the coin back. Unfortunately it happens in the business.

MacCoin

I have had a cigar box of cirulated common date morgans stolen out of my car years ago and I,m still PO about it.



<< <i>You feel violated after you got robbed >>



I just want to find out who did it. you know the payback thing works for me

WhiteTornado

My late brother started me off with a Dansco Morgan album and a couple of nice UNCs back in the late 1970s, or perhaps 1980. I know it was when silver was really hot and he figured it would be a good investment for me. I already had some ciruclated coins of other denominations my mother had passed down to me.

The album remained at my mom's house for many years, as my collecting interest lulled after my high school years. After my brother passed in January 1998, I think that's when I got to asking my mom about it. She hadn't seen it and we were pretty sure (due to my brother's reputation for being loose with liquor and money) my brother had taken it and sold it at one time. Another bummer is that she also told me that she had lost her 1913 Indian Head Quarter Eagle, and was pretty sure my brother had sold that off, too. That was a coin given to my mom by my great-grandfather (he was dead by the time I was born).

On a bittersweet ending note, I finally scraped and saved and bought a raw 1913 AU Quarter Eagle about 3 years ago. Since that time, I had heard that the dealer I got it from was shady. Fearing the coin might be counterfeit, I just had it graded at ANACS a month or so ago. It came back as genuine, but EF-45, Cleaned.

JadeRareCoin

We have had a few coins stolen. The worst one was an Oak Tree Two Pence in VF. It was stolen about 2 years ago at a Chicago area show. We also had an MS-68 Ike stolen (a $20 coin) and, most recently, we lost a NGC MS-63 $2.5 Indian at the Mid-America show last year. All of the coins were swiped at our table.

Kriek

Light sleeper with a HK Mark 23

louiskeller

Me Too,

A week ago someone broke into my house and stole all my display coins.

Thankfully I don't keep any good ones at home. Now I'm glad I keep them in a safe-deposit box.

Pistareen

I was broken into when I lived in Colorado Springs, just a short walk from ANA headquarters. I had a box of coins on my kitchen table that was never touched. Instead, the geniuses took a broken alarm clock, a magazine, and my laptop computer.

I wish they had taken the coins instead of the laptop. It included the original copy of my college thesis on the history of In God We Trust on coinage and a long research paper on the circulation patterns of Tyrian shekels. I never had a hard copy of the latter and all that research is gone.

drainbamage

My story is of a ex-dealer who conned me when he sold me a number of coins and then offered to hang on to them until the end of the day when I could pick them up...... He had been around for a number of years and was well respected at the time. I did not know his business had fallen on hard times.

After I had cherrypicked him and left, he picked through my bag and took out my excellent coins and replaced them with slightly less valuable coins of the same year..... He then put my coins back out in his display case and sold them again and made the same offer to the next collector.

Every cherrypicker that came along got nailed this way...... But it caught up with him. He soon went out of business in his little shop and that was that.

GoldCoinLover

I was with a 6 year old boy hanging over at my house. When he left I noticed he had a chinese coin in his hands closed in a fist, I asked him what he was holding and he said, "Nothing". He then had a grin on his face and started running, I caught up from him, tackled him, and pryed open his fingers. I then retrieved the coin and haven't invited him back (and probably won't) since.

Neptune

My Mom recently gave me my Whitman Lincoln book from childhood that she found after Daddy died, and it had the first page ripped off of it - don't think it was Mom or Dad who did it tho.

lordmarcovan

I had an 1873 gold dollar, ANACS MS60 PL (serial number 979275), and a 1901 $10 Liberty, PCGS MS61 (serial number 21046183), stolen last January. Have had other stuff stolen through the mails, but these were not, and they stung the worst of any ripoff so far. They especially stung because the gold dollar looked way nicer than its technical grade, thanks to its prooflike status, and the $10 had formerly been in an ANACS MS63 holder before I cracked it and sent it to PCGS.

These coins were not insured. They were stolen by a corrupt employee of the antique mall I had consigned them to (he was the evening manager so he had the keys to my case; I am an absentee vendor). I can't prove anything and he was fired from the job shortly after the coins vanished. The vendor is responsible for insuring merchandise so it's my loss (hadn't gotten around to getting insurance)- however, the Antique Mall owner was not unsympathetic and gave me a display case worth about $150 as a consolation.

BigAl

Example: I heard a new thing they do is ask to see a coin. Then they replace it with a similar one. You really have to watch your coins!

This happened to my dealer at a show....thief swapped an 09sVDBms65RD with an 09VDBms65RD. Both were in PCGS holders. Dealer did not realized what transpired until sometime later, when a customer asked for a price quote on the 09vdb.

louiskeller

BigAl,

I hope it wasn't in Vegas. There are a lot of card cheats and magicians there who use their skills to do just what you described.

There is greater risk at any type of show with small sized items, especially when the casinos won't let them get away with it as much.

Cameras is all I can say.