obscurity is the best security when it comes to gold?

t3rr0r1sm · April 26, 2005 7:34AM

Hi all,

I need some more advice.

My coins have been arriving from ebay to my work place.
I have not shared the fact to anyone at work that I am buying wicked
cool gold coins.

How in the heck do you folk manage to allow others to see these
coins, yet stay secure?

I do not want people to know I have gold in a package.
Yet I want to show others what I have.

It seems to me, I will never be able to show anyone except family
and very close friends. Work not included i guess.

What do you all do?

thanks.

flaminio · April 26, 2005 7:36AM

If you don't trust someone to see your coin, don't show it to them. If that means that only close friends and family get to see them, so be it.

There are some coins that only *I* get to see. Not even my wife, although for other reasons... Who are you collecting for -- yourself, or your cow-orkers?

mirabela · April 26, 2005 7:38AM

I'd maintain utmost secrecy. Those things are thief & dirtbag magnets. Even if nobody you show them to is crooked, somebody mentions them to somebody who mentions them to somebody, who visits your house while you're out, or worse yet who introduces themselves to you with a .38. I wouldn't say a word.

t3rr0r1sm · April 26, 2005 7:39AM

For myself of course. Buying for my coworkers was never
even a consideration.

I just know, someone who is nice (read victim), would show others
such a unique object.

My coworkers are rather smart educated people from all over the
world. I know they would love to see it.

Yet, I have decided not to. I just wonder what others do.
Has something bad happened as a result?

Or is it only gold one has to watch out for, as well as 100+ dollar coins.

?

pharmer · April 26, 2005 7:43AM

Another idea, sort of an alt id-a, would be to not have conflicting desires, that of not wanting anyone to know and of wanting them to know.

relayer · April 26, 2005 7:46AM

Get a PO box

or open the package in front of person who gets the mail at your work and excalim "Check out my new gold coin"

flaminio · April 26, 2005 7:54AM

<< <i>Or is it only gold one has to watch out for, as well as 100+ dollar coins. >>

Depends. I've only showed coins to a couple select cow-orkers. One of them is a part time dealer, and I showed him my most expensive coin, which is not gold. But I have other cow-orkers whom I wouldn't show a five dollar coin -- they'd probably snatch it for beer money.

mirabela · April 26, 2005 7:59AM

Here's the thing -- people who don't know about coins assume that old coins are worth a lot. Period. These are the same people who get dollar signs in their eyes when they find a dateless buffalo nickel in deceased Aunt Nelly's sock drawer. You tell them you collect coins, or heaven forbid show them anything, and it doesn't matter if it's a Barber dime worth three bucks. Sooner or later, someone winds up with the idea you've got some sort of treasure hidden. Bad move.

Near here, an old couple got stabbed in their sleep and their house burnt down with them in it last summer, because word got out somehow they had a safe. That word made it somehow to some high school dropout oxycontin addicts. Who knows how it did, doesn't matter now. It also doesn't matter that the safe had less than a grand in it.

t3rr0r1sm · April 26, 2005 8:20AM

Ok,

Just needed a kick in the butt to verify what i knew was common sense.
It appears when it comes to gold, the very old rule still applies, tell no one.

As for coins, who knows. Gold reasoning trumps coin reasoning :-/

I think the difference between a PCGS AU58 and MS60 depends on
the graders having a good dump in the morning. If it was a bad dump,
so much for that MS60.

mirabela · April 26, 2005 8:27AM

That's more like the difference btw 58 and 62. 60 is oftentimes a darned ugly coin. If it gets declared AU, it's probably a 55.

ddink · April 26, 2005 8:39AM

The problem is that even with coworkers you trust, if one innocently mentions something in passing to another friend, and word passes on that way...the wrong person might overhear something!

mgoodm3 · April 26, 2005 8:46AM

Show them to us.

ddbird · April 26, 2005 9:12AM

Show em to only a few you trust! I woulnd bring it up unless someone asks and is a trusted friend. Also, if you have a SD box...its a slightly added feeling of security if you want to show a FEW people. Even then, word tends to spread, and you might get a few unwanted visitors at your house.

streeter · April 26, 2005 10:09AM

I've shown some incoming treasures to coworkers and in retrospect---wish I never had.

There is another thread from a gentleman in SoCal who was just followed home by three dirtbags and relieved of 40k.

Many times your first inclination is to do a show and tell. Save it for later as it will either make coworkers jealous or envious.

CarlWohlforth · April 26, 2005 10:21AM

mirabela and others make sense. Coins are better if you can share. I share here on the boards. I also show a few select coins to a few non-collectors. But I don't show better dates because they always ask "how much is it worth"? I always make it a point to say that all my coins are kept in the safe deposit box at my bank. It is true and they believe me. So I have to agree with the title of this thread "obscurity is the best security"...

dorkbar · April 27, 2005 12:26AM

Are you out of your mind? These people at work who are so decent, educated and all, with the white teeth, are the same scumbags who talk about what a dweeb you are behind your back; don't be naive.

If the link is made between "mailroom/t3's gold coins" you'll never see another one show up.

People are scumbags. The ones who aren't will use any excuse to become so, then justify their scumminess until they believe they've done nothing wrong, then look for the real killer out on the golf course.

mhammerman · April 27, 2005 12:43AM

"Show them to us. "

Yeah, we would appreciate them and know what they are. We would like them and talk to you about them. Here we all have the same dimentia...we think gold coins are very cool.

TheRaven · April 27, 2005 2:43AM

I agree that being quiet is the best strategy.....

Nobody other then me has a feel for the scope of what I have in total and the dollar figure on my collection.....

I show a few people a few interesting coins but that is about it and my gold coins basically don't leave my safe/ my hands other then when I first get it I might show some interested family members.....

Again as has been said above, most of those people don't know anything about that coin other then it is a 1892 Half Dollar or so forth.....

KUCH · April 27, 2005 6:51AM

Wouldn't want to take a chance. Share the pics here with us.

RYK · April 27, 2005 7:11AM

As time goes on, I become less interested in sharing my coin purchases with others, except for a very small number of fellow collectors with like collecting interests.

Reasons:
1. I do not want to seem like a braggart.
2. Most people, even here, really do not care.
3. I am not interested in hearing what non-collectors think about my coins.
4. Security/privacy is a concern, but not a huge one. All of my coins are stored in the bank vault.

I do have some obsolete coins and generic gold around to show non-collectors if they ask to see my collection. To most, a 1924 Saint is more impressive then a 1861-D $5, so why not show them what they want to see?

I do have a website with my collection on it and most of the coins photographed and described. If anyone wants to visit, they are welcome.

pharmer · April 27, 2005 7:19AM

Succinctly put, RYK, my reasons as well, although security is my major concern. All bases are covered by never letting anyone, I mean anyone, know you collect coins.

Longacre · April 27, 2005 7:32AM

I tend not to share too much either. I did think of an ingenious way to get the wife off of my back, though. If ever faced with a complaint on the amount you are spending, you simply show a quarter eagle and say, "look at how small this coin is; how could it ever cost so much?" The problem is that you are forced to collect quarter eagles.

RYK · April 27, 2005 7:39AM

I did think of an ingenious way to get the wife off of my back, though. If ever faced with a complaint on the amount you are spending, you simply show a quarter eagle and say, "look at how small this coin is; how could it ever cost so much?"

I have a better solution:

"What quarter eagle?

"

obscurity is the best security when it comes to gold?

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