1838-C $2 1/2 Gold (why you dont take your coins to inexperienced/shiester folks)
jdimmick
Posts: 9,780 ✭✭✭✭✭
About 3 weeks ago, another dealer across town called me and told me that he had a customer that brought in a 38-c $2 1/2 , but didn't think it was real. He said he acid checked it with 18kt acid and it went away. Anyway he said he would send him my way since the guy wouldn't sell it for gold weight. He never called, until today. Today 3 weeks later he calls and mentions he was referred by a pawn shop to me. I had him bring it over. As soon as I saw it, I knew it was real. checked the diagnostics, and confirmed it, only problem was , the prior dealer cut a small scratch into the reverse and dropped acid on the coin and smoothed it over. I still bought it for a pretty fair sum, but told the guy had he came to me to start with I would have paid 8k easily for the coin. It was an original AU. Obverse is nice, but reverse has the issue above the eagle where they messed with it. What finally got him to call me, was the pawn shop he took it to today, check the gold content with thier xrf machine and told him it was 21.4 K which is 90%, so he knew it had to be legit after doing research. They referred him to me like they do most of the folks that come in with coins. Guy told me the first dealer kind of ducked & weaved behind the counter when he checked the coin the first time on the stone. I checked it with my machine and it was 90% as it should be.
I believe the first dealer, tried to screw the guy and claim the coin was fake and was trying to buy it at scrap value hoping he'd sell.
Its unfortunate as they really messed up what would have been a great piece.
Comments
That makes me sad and sick at the same time.
"If I say something in the woods and my wife isn't there to hear it.....am I still wrong?"
My Washington Quarter Registry set...in progress
that's awful
Please provide pics... sooo unfortunate something so unnecessary should happened to a coin like that...
'dude
Ill try to post some pics tomorrow when I have a chance
A cut and acid test on the face of a coin!? C'mon!
Actually pretty common when dealing with generics. But a C-mint piece? That was criminal.
RMR: 'Wer, wenn ich schriee, hörte mich denn aus der Engel Ordnungen?'
CJ: 'No one!' [Ain't no angels in the coin biz]
Blame goes on the seller not the pawn man. Unsuspecting rubes usually get burned. Pawn shop is the bottom rung of the financial system.
Too bad about the coin though. That is why we have genuine holders!
Ouch. They were already rare..... now even more so.
Would he have grounds for action against the first guy?
Assuming he consented to letting the dealer test it he would not.
When I was first getting into coins, I cherrypicked a 1911-D weak D $2 1/2 for the price of a 1911 off ebay. The local coin "dealer" told me it was fake when I had him check it out. I asked why he thought so, and he said the mint mark was in the wrong location. He thought a little smudge on the obverse was the mint mark, and I had to point out to him where it actually was (Doh!). Never went back to him. PCGS graded it XF45 weak D.
Sounds like a conservation project.
Wow that's messed up.
I'd look at the law; a sharp lawyer could make a case that under the license the pawn shop is under or other professional compliance laws they damaged a rare coin thus being responsible for ruining a rare heirloom and liable for reckless misconduct. Like any professional that operates or damages something in his trust. The incompetent pawn shop jerk should be dragged into court and there needs to be a public record of this so that it is a lot less likely in the future.
I think the pawn guy is the good guy here, right?
He did the nondestructive test and then immediately sent the owner to the OP.
It's the first dealer who butchered it.
"If I say something in the woods and my wife isn't there to hear it.....am I still wrong?"
My Washington Quarter Registry set...in progress
Yes, correct.
The original coin dealer is the guilty party. Pawn broker checked the metal content with the xrf but didn't cause any damage to coin, they actually reffered him to me.
I am not sure why the guy who owned the coin didn't come to me after the first time he went to the first shop(wouldn't have helped in this case as damage was already done at this point, but), it wasn't till after he went to the other pawn shop (that refers to me) that he decided to call me. First shop he visited, the dealer that scratched it, was just luck of the draw. This same dealer about two years ago got the luck of the draw on a customer that was heading to me, but after contacting me as was supposedly on his way , the seller decided to go to his place because it was 15 min closer. It cost him 4-5k bucks. Sold a complete set of morgans for way way under wholesale. He then came to me with a set of ikes and sac dollars because the other place didn't want them. That's when I found out he had sold the morgans at the first location, I went over to look at them at the other dealers shop, and was astounded at how nice they were. I called the customer back and told them I hope the 15 min was worth the 4-5K he lost out on. I ended up buying several of the nicer morgans from that dealer for more than he got for the whole set. (PS: This dealer is known for scummy business practices at times)
It was the dealer across town who did the scratch test, the pawn shop gave the referral and could be considered a good guy. Just because you have a disdain for pawn shop owners doesn't make them responsible for an action in which they received approval from the owner for.
Original dealer is a scumbag with transparent motivations. A shame about the coin.
Ok, I meant the dealer across town; whoever damaged the coin is responsible, it is a hell of a lot of money lost in that damage. Negligence, recklessness, malpractice. "Free will" and "consent" are way over-rated when you are dealing with people who are supposed to know what they are doing.
Regardless, I think the "dealer" who defaced the coin owes the guy something for loss of value; something on the order of several K.
Doesn't it create a bit of a situation when you tell coin sellers how the "scummy at times dealer" ripped them off and it ends up getting back to the "scummy at times dealer"?
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
Talk about dealer malpractice! Was this dealer one of those clowns who is more of a jewelry store than coin store? May that explains why he scratched the piece and treated it with acid.
His approach to certification made no sense. If the coin was genuine, didn't he know that his method of verification would lower the value? What an idiot!
He didn't care. Better to sell a coin for half of what it's worth, than not to get the sale at all.
Such a shame... one would think that the party that test/damaged the coin would have known that they were decreasing the value by such a test.... just plain ignorance.. Cheers, RickO
What is in it for these shops to keep sending customers to someone else, especially if you will come back and buy several coins and pay more than the whole set cost him?
wow, what a horrible story. there are so many ways to authenticate coins without damaging them.
i once watched a guy completely destroy a gold panda to prove to himself it was real. unbelievable!