A little diversion... the rare coin confidence game
kranky
Posts: 8,709 ✭✭✭
Adapted from a book I read about gambling scams.
Conman in a nice suit approaches a store counter to purchase a small item. He drops some coins while taking them out of his pocket. He gathers them off the floor but keeps looking. Conman tells the employee he can't find a particular coin that he dropped.
"I dropped a 1929 penny. It's the last coin I need for my collection and I was lucky enough to get one last night - won it in a poker game from another collector. Look, that coin is brand new and worth $500 but I have to get to an appointment and can't stay here and look any longer. Tell you what, I'll come back later and if you happen to find it I'll pay you $250. They are rare and I don't know when I'll ever find another one."
An hour or two later, the conman's accomplice goes to the same counter to buy something small. While handing over his money he stops and says, "Hey, look at this old coin! I found it on the floor just now but it looks really new for how old it is. 1929! Wonder if it's valuable?"
The employee typically will try to talk the accomplice out of the coin by offering to pay a few bucks for it. The accomplice will say he's going to find a coin dealer to find out what it's really worth. The employee bumps the offer up, often making up a story to justify his interest. "Hey, my grandfather was born in 1929. His birthday is coming up and it would be nice if I could give him this coin on his birthday. C'mon, won't you take $50 for it?"
When the employee's offer gets lucrative enough (counting on that $250 reward), the accomplice gives in and sells the "rare coin" - a coin that they bought in quantity for under $1 each.
The conman and the accomplice split the proceeds. They can run this con on multiple stores on the same day, and move on to another town if they draw heat.
Conman in a nice suit approaches a store counter to purchase a small item. He drops some coins while taking them out of his pocket. He gathers them off the floor but keeps looking. Conman tells the employee he can't find a particular coin that he dropped.
"I dropped a 1929 penny. It's the last coin I need for my collection and I was lucky enough to get one last night - won it in a poker game from another collector. Look, that coin is brand new and worth $500 but I have to get to an appointment and can't stay here and look any longer. Tell you what, I'll come back later and if you happen to find it I'll pay you $250. They are rare and I don't know when I'll ever find another one."
An hour or two later, the conman's accomplice goes to the same counter to buy something small. While handing over his money he stops and says, "Hey, look at this old coin! I found it on the floor just now but it looks really new for how old it is. 1929! Wonder if it's valuable?"
The employee typically will try to talk the accomplice out of the coin by offering to pay a few bucks for it. The accomplice will say he's going to find a coin dealer to find out what it's really worth. The employee bumps the offer up, often making up a story to justify his interest. "Hey, my grandfather was born in 1929. His birthday is coming up and it would be nice if I could give him this coin on his birthday. C'mon, won't you take $50 for it?"
When the employee's offer gets lucrative enough (counting on that $250 reward), the accomplice gives in and sells the "rare coin" - a coin that they bought in quantity for under $1 each.
The conman and the accomplice split the proceeds. They can run this con on multiple stores on the same day, and move on to another town if they draw heat.
New collectors, please educate yourself before spending money on coins; there are people who believe that using numismatic knowledge to rip the naïve is what this hobby is all about.
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Comments
The older sister pretends to have lost a ring and is late for a flight and offers gas station clerk a $3K reward if he locates it.
Her younger sister comes along and pretends to pick up a ring ($20 costume jewelery variety) which after some negotiation yields her the $400 in cash register as a finders fee.
<< <i>The same con is played out with an engagement ring in the movie Zombieland.
The older sister pretends to have lost a ring and is late for a flight and offers gas station clerk a $3K reward if he locates it.
Her younger sister comes along and pretends to pick up a ring ($20 costume jewelery variety) which after some negotiation yields her the $400 in cash register as a finders fee. >>
Funny, I was thinking of the EXACT same thing!
Edited to ask: Wouldn't a coin found on the floor of a coin shop be claimed by the shop owner??
JH
Proof Buffalo Registry Set
Capped Bust Quarters Registry Set
Proof Walking Liberty Halves Registry Set
<< <i>I doubt I'd believe that he was carrying the "key" to his collection in "brand new" condition in his pocket with the rest of his pocket change...
Edited to ask: Wouldn't a coin found on the floor of a coin shop be claimed by the shop owner??
JH >>
Who said it was in a coin shop? "Brand new" sounds rare and valuable to the liquor store clerk.
RIP Mom- 1932-2012
<< <i>Adapted from a book I read about gambling scams.
Conman in a nice suit approaches a store counter to purchase a small item. He drops some coins while taking them out of his pocket. He gathers them off the floor but keeps looking. Conman tells the employee he can't find a particular coin that he dropped.
"I dropped a 1929 penny. It's the last coin I need for my collection and I was lucky enough to get one last night - won it in a poker game from another collector. Look, that coin is brand new and worth $500 but I have to get to an appointment and can't stay here and look any longer. Tell you what, I'll come back later and if you happen to find it I'll pay you $250. They are rare and I don't know when I'll ever find another one."
An hour or two later, the conman's accomplice goes to the same counter to buy something small. While handing over his money he stops and says, "Hey, look at this old coin! I found it on the floor just now but it looks really new for how old it is. 1929! Wonder if it's valuable?"
The employee typically will try to talk the accomplice out of the coin by offering to pay a few bucks for it. The accomplice will say he's going to find a coin dealer to find out what it's really worth. The employee bumps the offer up, often making up a story to justify his interest. "Hey, my grandfather was born in 1929. His birthday is coming up and it would be nice if I could give him this coin on his birthday. C'mon, won't you take $50 for it?"
When the employee's offer gets lucrative enough (counting on that $250 reward), the accomplice gives in and sells the "rare coin" - a coin that they bought in quantity for under $1 each.
The conman and the accomplice split the proceeds. They can run this con on multiple stores on the same day, and move on to another town if they draw heat. >>
Some problems:
A coin store owner will know if a coin is "rare" or not. A 1929 cent is not rare unless uncirculated and you don't find $500 coins in change or at poker games. Secondly, coin store owners get customers all day, every day who think their coins are worth much more than they really are. Most people are absolutely clueless of the value of old numismatically valuable coins. Lastly, in today's world, most valuable Uncs will be holdered, not laying in some rube's pocket to fly out when he sticks his stupid hand in his pocket.
This scam probably works, I just don't believe it would work at a coin store. If a customer walked in and found a coin on the floor and claimed it his own, he would be arrested for theft, probably after the coin store owner nearly beat the idiot to death for trying to steal coins from his shop.
So, if a customer walks onto your private commercial property/storefront and finds something laying on your property...it is somehow his? That is nonsense.
When I was a young kid, I had the strange rationalization that if something sold by a grocery store had fallen on the ground, it was lost and if I picked it up, it was mine.
That worked swell until my father saw me eating some gum in the back of our old van and asked where I had bought it, and where I got the money to buy the gum. I explained that I "found" it on the floor of the last grocery store we visited.
After my dad beat my sorry ass for stealing, I realized that finding stuff on private property was not my stuff, it was stealing.
Crooks and conmen are in the business of stealing people's money, and they flat out do not care about legalities. Cheers, RickO
www.brunkauctions.com
<< <i>"After my dad beat my sorry ass for stealing, I realized that finding stuff on private property was not my stuff, it was stealing."
Crooks and conmen are in the business of stealing people's money, and they flat out do not care about legalities. Cheers, RickO >>
Sure enough. However, the point I am making is that if part of the "con" is to pull out a coin that was first claimed to have been dropped at a business and then claim it as one's own, is not going to work, because it is not one's own, it is property of the business where it was found.
How can the con work if the second person tries to take the coin they claimed to have found someplace on the premises of the coin store and threaten to take it someplace else to sell it or have it appraised?
If you had a business and somebody picked something up off the floor that wasn't theirs, do you allow them to keep whatever they found?
60 years into this hobby and I'm still working on my Lincoln set!