Has anyone ever purchased a coin that was later discovered to be stolen...

RYK

and what was the sequence of events that followed.

It's one thing that scares me about buying a coin from an unknown seller (ie. ebay). I expect that the known sellers that I work with would back me up. Am I being realistic? How many stolen coins are out there?

DJC

<< <i>How many stolen coins are out there? >>



Plenty. Both mine and my grandfather's collections were stolen back in late 1996. Mine wasn't all that much (2/3 complete sets of mid-circ Indian cents and Buffalos, plus some odd type, maybe $3-4K) and was covered by my homeowner's policy. My grandfather on the other hand...

Insurance or not (fortunately yes) he'd been building his collections since 1938. Again, it probably wasn't a phenomenal amount of money compared to many, but almost 60 years of effort...gone. I don't think he's ever really gotten over it, and he's never bought a coin or stamp (both in his stolen collection) since.

OKbustchaser

I haven't bought one that was LATER discovered to be stolen, but last fall I did buy one on ebay that I recognized had been stolen. I knew it had been because I was the person it had been stolen from 7 years earlier. It was still in the same 2X2 with my attribution and grade.

For the money I paid for it it wasn't worth the hassle of trying to trace everyone's hands it had gone through during the intervening years so I didn't even bother to tell the seller.

Jim

CommemDude

A few years ago I bought a PCGS 68 Antietam from a respected major dealer, and it had an odd stray mark on it that made me think the coin should not be a 68. There were only 7 Antietams in 68 at that time so I called Larry Shepherd for his opinion since I knew he would have seen the coin in the past. Larry knew who the last owner was, thought it was odd that I had been able to buy the coin, and quickly discovered the coin had been stolen.

The major dealer quickly took the coin back and it was determined that a few boxes of coins had been stolen during the owner's move and sold to a small midwest dealer who apparently didn't think it odd that a layperson would walk in with all these low pop coins to sell him. I believe the whole episode ended well thanks to Larry's incredible knowlege of the whereabouts of all these low pop commems.

mrearlygold

Not a coin or coins but antique jewelry and diamonds over the counter at my first shop.

It was the grandson who stole from his Grandmother. It was my feeling at that time anyway. Long and short of it, I got my money returned, the Grandmother got her possessions returned and the grandson got the fear of G-d in him.


Tom