After Coin Shop Robbery, Rare Coins Spent At Face Value

When my dad was a teenager in the 50's, he ran the school candy store, which meant a lot of change passed through his hands. He saved out all the "obsolete" silver coins he found, and ended up with a nice collection of circulated Barber coins. They were stolen in a break-in around 1980. The police said that the thief probably just spent them at face value. They also said that even if they received a tip from a merchant, they couldn't arrest anyone, because it isn't illegal to spend valid money and because there was no way to identify the coins as my dad's.

I suppose that suggests that it is worth taking good photos of ones coins for just such a situation - although whether the police would compare the recovered coins to the photos is not certain.