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 Replies: 21 / Views: 3,240 |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
Today at a coin show I was talking to a dealer I've known for many years. He USED to have an assistant helping him but recently his helper had to stop with a second job due to personal problems. His personal problem, a divorce. Now here is where coins come into the picture. Like most men, he was unsuspecting of the upcoming divorce until one day he came home and his entire coin collection was gone along with his wife. He was a coin collector for a long, long time and all his coins were in possibly MS grades. He HAD such coins as 1916D Mercury dime, 09S VDB Lincoln, 77 Indian Head cent, 1856 Flying Eagle cent and many, many more in all MS grades. Many sets were complete. Most expensive ones were in slabs. Now all gone. AND most were in a safe but since they were married, naturally she had the combination. The story gets worse. This dealer telling me this never met his assistants wife so she must have found documents with his name on them and went to him to sell most of the coins while her husband was at his main job. The prices he offered were enough for her so she sold him almost all the coins. Nothing slabbed though since she was smart enough to know those had ways of identification and she didn't want this dealer to know where the coins came from. She did tell him she had lots of other coins for sale and would get back to him another day. Naturally the another day didn't happen since his assistant met with him to tell him what had happened. The dealer tried to contact her for the rest of the coins but was told all now gone. The dealer, as well as many others said to contact an attorney fast but as he said, for coins it is to late now. Those coins would have been communal property since all were accumulated while they were married. So is this a Numismatic Crime? Not sure but I wonder what he will do next. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4212 Posts |
If they're lost forever, misdemeamor homocide.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1796 Posts |
In most states, either owner of communal property can sell it. However in most cases if the party who did sell it cannot prove that they had a darn good reason other (like there were outstanding debts, or that he at some point consented) it's illegal and they're in deep trouble.
If she was simply trying to liquidate his assets to pre-empt him in divorce proceedings, that she's going to have a lot of explaining to do and could be penalized substantially. In the end (since they were communal property) she might get away with half of the proceedings anyways with how many laws are written.
That's a dirty trick. :-(
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Valued Member
United States
492 Posts |
Don't tell my wife, but this is one of the reasons why we have separate safe deposit boxes... Quote:
Of course if he had a bank's safety deposit box, that too would have had both names on that. Mine doesn't.  Edited by TJB17
03/10/2013 8:40 pm
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Bedrock of the Community
 United States
20753 Posts |
She also took all his records of what he had, deleted all such info from the family computer too. All books on coins too were now gone so it actually appears he never had a coin collection at all.
The Dealer I was hearing this all from said more than likely all the slabbed coins were just dumped at a local coin shop, flea market or who knows where. The dealer said even if he was called to testify that his assistant had purchased coins from him, that would actually not be able to be proved since he never writes down or documents sales except for tax purposes. Of course if he had a bank's safety deposit box, that too would have had both names on that.
I couldn't even imagine what I'd do in such a situation.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1796 Posts |
Quote:
She also took all his records of what he had, deleted all such info from the family computer too. All books on coins too were now gone so it actually appears he never had a coin collection at all. Yeah then this is fraud on top of everything else. And a hard case to prove. |
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Rest in Peace
United States
10625 Posts |
What comes around goes around. I believe whatever she's working on will bite her hard.
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Bedrock of the Community
13014 Posts |
Talk about vindictive. I'm sure she will of course still be asking for half of everything.
Im a big believer in backing everything up on at least one flash drive and often times more than 1 that everyone doesn't need to know about. That of course wouldnt get the coins back but would at least make it easier to prove what she did and cut her off from getting anymore
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1200 Posts |
Whether or not it's a crime could probably be argued, but this is unarguably one of the saddest coin-related stories I've ever heard. Getting robbed is bad, but this is just tragic.
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Valued Member
United States
158 Posts |
This makes me never want to get married. lol I would be fuming for a long, long time.
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
7096 Posts |
Without knowing all the facts it is hard to say if this is a crime. This bloke could be a total ratbag and is simply getting his comeuppance. There is normally a very good reason why people do these sort of things. I have been through 2 divorces and both of them were settled fairly, The missus got everything and I got the bills   . But my coins survived the ordeal  Without ALL the facts there is NO way this can be decided  I would be devastated if I lost all my coins and my ex Wives knew this, That is why my coins survived, God bless em  Wimmen don't turn nasty and vindictive for NO reason, I think there is more to this than has been said so far  |
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Valued Member
United States
256 Posts |
Boy, I'm not a violent person but something like that could make me be!
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1200 Posts |
Trout---You raise some very good, valid points. We don't know the full story or the other side of the story. Either or both parties could be guilty or innocent
of almost anything prior to the liberation of the coin collection for all we know.
I have to wonder about the dealer's involvement. Even if he'd never met wifey, had he never even heard her name? When he ID'd her, why didn't her name
and address raise an alarm with him? Did he have literally no idea in the world the coins were his assistant's collection? Had his assistant never, ever told
the dealer even one syllable about the collection or the wife? These are red flags and they really do make me wonder what the complete, full story really is..
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
2781 Posts |
so the dealer that the guy works for is the one who bought them from the soon to be ex?
anyone else thinks thats a bit odd?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1812 Posts |
When I filed for divorce after 34 years of marriage in 2009, my wife who never spent a cent toward my collection (that turned into a dealer inventory) then back to a collection for my grandchildren to inherit, would always complain that I was wasting my money (while she wasted hers in a bar) and could care less about the coins.
Low & behold, after she is served the papers and forced to hire a lawyer she could not afford, and the lawyer found out about my collection (listed in my will for the grandchildren), it was a expensive and 14 month battle over dividing the estate...
In the end her greed & vindictive ways cost her 5 figures less in the settlement, and cost me 5 figures in legal fees over the 14 month ordeal, and had she received my original proposal and not get the lawyers involved, we both would have been better off, instead she chose to put up a fight and make the Lawyers richer.
[ I can't avoid mentioning that 3 years before I filed for divorce, she was living with her boyfriend on the other side of town, and after the Judge signed the papers, both her and her boyfriend moved into a apartment across the street from my house ]
{this would make a great story if it were not true}
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Valued Member
United States
292 Posts |
"I have to wonder about the dealer's involvement. Even if he'd never met wifey, had he never even heard her name? When he ID'd her, why didn't her name and address raise an alarm with him? Did he have literally no idea in the world the coins were his assistant's collection? Had his assistant never, ever told the dealer even one syllable about the collection or the wife? These are red flags and they really do make me wonder what the complete, full story really is.."
And wouldn't you imagine many of the coins in his collection were acquired from that shop?
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Replies: 21 / Views: 3,240 |
Posted 03/10/2013 7:34 pm
