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Hi Dan .... I read your initial quote as follows: "The guy who sold it to me flat out admitted that he doesn't know if it's real silver or not and that is why he priced it at $10. He said that if he knew if it was real, he'd sell it for a lot more. I took a chance and bought it." Is that not what you first wrote on Sept 17? I'm confused. That doesn't sound like an outright fraud; this, especially as the item wasn't labeled.
Understand that I'm not defending the seller's sales tactics, just trying to comprehend how the deal went down. Folks who read this thread can then possibly benefit should they find themselves in similar situations.
A year or so ago, I was visiting a coin booth in a flea market. The older dealer and I were in the midst of a conversation when a fellow approached him with a book of thirty or so silver dollars, Morgan and Peace. There was an 1889-CC in XF, but most of the coins were common. Had the 1889-CC been genuine, the deal would've been worth the seller's asking price of $1,500. Also, some of the other "coins" were Chinese counterfeits. It's not uncommon for crooks to mix the counterfeits with genuine coins. This brings me to my next point, Dan.
Were all the "coins" with the 1804 the same price, $10? It's possible that the seller thought there could be some silver in that 1804. I've known many a coin dealer who's been fooled by counterfeits at some time or another. Most pawn brokers and auctioneers whom I've met in the past forty years know relatively little about coins, tokens, paper and the like.
I don't know if the rest of the coins were also $10. I never asked this back on September 17, nor did I ask it the second time because of how dismissive he was towards me. Considering how he blunt he was towards me a few days ago, it should give people an idea of how he is. For example, if this had happened at Pawn USA (the pawn shop in Woodbridge, VA that people who are looking for junk silver coins should go to), I might believe that some counterfeits may have accidentally got somehow mixed in.
Let's compare to what a good dealer would say vs. a bad dealer if somebody showed them an 1857
Flying Eagle cent in any kind of condition:
Good dealer:
Me - I'm trying to sell my 1857
Flying Eagle cent. What do you think I can get for this?
Dealer - Hmmmm (looking at it). I haven't seen this before. Tell you what: Let me look this up and I'll see what I can do.
Bad dealer:
Me - I'm trying to sell my 1857
Flying Eagle cent. What do you think I can get for this?
Dealer - (after looking at it for literally one second) "Nothing"
Me - Why not?
Dealer - I don't want it.
I know this part of the story might be irrelevant, but it should serve as an example of what kind of guy he is. Speaking to people in a rude manner and selling fake money should tell you that a guy like that has no morals and doesn't care about anybody but himself.
I do not judge you, or anybody else, in a negative manner if you believe what he did was an honest mistake. I am trying to explain to other people that I believe dealers like this are dishonest, fraudulent, and should be locked up.
There is one last thing I neglected to mention. I did not tell him that I had bought the fake coin from him three months prior. He may or may not remember me but I was so disgusted with him, I felt it would have been an absolute waste of time to even try to argue with him, plus in September he said that he didn't know if it was silver, yet three months later, he knew that they were fake. Yeah that's a clear sign of dishonesty.
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Posted 01/01/2012 10:10 pm
