Should I Sell A Cast Copy Of A Coin With Full Disclosure?

Westcoin, thanks for linking the law. Apparently I did break the law by selling it. I have no excuse, but I am willing to pay the price for my actions. I probably already have because haven't stopped thinking about it since I did it. But if there is any additional price to pay I'll pay that too.

The HPA is administered by the FTC. The FTC generally controls commercial trade, not private sales. Any regulation of private sales come at a state level generally. Private sales are covered under " Private Enforcement" section of the HPA. which allows for civil, not criminal action. And it only allows for relief not punitive penalties




Basically, the way I read it, if you defraud someone by selling them a replica coin, they can start a civil action to get their money back. If they were fully aware that the coin was a copy, I don't read the above as it being a civil infraction and most certainly not a criminal infraction.

While I don't condone fraud or counterfeiting Ed, I most certainly would not be losing any sleep. You did everything right. Being in the construction business for years, I have sold many many trucks and heavy equipment. Some of it was in full working order and some of it was sold with fully disclosed mechanical problems.

I never once lost any sleep over whether the people I sold the tens of thousands of dollars worth of equipment to, were turning around and reselling it to others as problem free. And I most certainly was not about to junk a $10,000 front end loader that needed an engine overhaul, just because I was afraid the person was going to sell it to someone else as "nice tractor with strong running diesel"

While I would not have knowingly sold the coin to a known dealer of fakes and counterfeits, I would not be losing sleep over it, YOU didn't defraud anyone.