On July 20, 2024, I found an interesting book,
Numismatic Rogues Gallery, on the Newman Numismatic Portal (NNP) which was about criminals associated with numismatics and coin collecting.
One article was about a career criminal named Forrest Tucker who robbed a coin dealer in 1978 and in 2018 actor Robert Redford produced and starred in a movie about Tucker.
The book
Numismatic Rogues Gallery by Pete Smith was placed on the Newman Numismatic Portal in 2023.
NNP Article:
https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/periodical/635179NNP Book:
Numismatic Rogues Gallery (NRG)
Pete Smith
A Work-in-Progress April 30, 2024
https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/book/634354This is a catalogue of people in the numismatic hobby who are perpetrators or victims of crimes resulting in convictions. It also mentions some victims in cases that have not been solved. In a few cases, suspects have died before they could be prosecuted. The index includes 275 perpetrators, 181 incidents, 77 victims, 7 aliases, and 5 others (witnesses).
On page 65 of the
Numismatic Rogues Gallery is an article about the robbery of a Modesto California coin dealer.
John Vernon Penrod was convicted of the July 5, 1978, robbery at the Modesto Coin Center and sentenced to five years in prison. He lost his right eye in a police shoot-out as he tried to escape.
ALso charged was Forrest Silva Tucker (1920-2004) who received a ten-year sentence for the 1978 Modesto robbery as an ex-felon.
Tucker had a long criminal record and claimed that he made successful escapes from prison 18 times.
He died in a prison medical facility on May 29, 2004, in Fort Worth, Texas.
The story of Forrest Tucker was presented in a 2018 movie, The Old Man and the Gun, starring Robert Redford.
Life events occurred and I forgot about the book and the film.
After the news about Robert Redford's passing appeared, I watched the 2018 film, "The Old Man & the Gun", which was a fictionalized film presenting Tucker as a polite comical old man who enjoys robbing banks.
The Old Man & the Gun - Robert Redford as Forrest Tucker
The coin dealer robbery was not mentioned in the film, but there is a scene where Tucker and his gang break into a bank safe and steal some gold coins and bars.
The Old Man & the Gun - Gold coins
Posted 09/17/2025 11:24 am
