Coin Dealer Robbed Of $36,000 Collection

Rodger Ackerson remembers the coin that started a lifelong fascination with collecting.

It was 1959, he was 14, and a freshly minted penny -- with a depiction of the Lincoln Memorial that replaced the previous version with wheat ears -- had just been released.

"I paid a dime for my first penny," recalled Ackerson, 61. "I wasn't too smart back then."

Today, he's out much more money. A collection he had been gathering for 15 years, worth an estimated $36,000, was stolen from his Collector's Korner shop July 20.

Ackerson left the walk-in safe open while he chatted with customers inside the shop, 218 W. Main St. He later noticed the collection was gone.

"They got the best stuff I had," said Ackerson, who is offering a $500 reward for information leading to the coins' return.

The coins were in three unmarked, white boxes on a high shelf inside the safe. They include pennies to dollar coins from the 1800s and 1900s, such as a 1904 "proof Barber" half-dollar -- one of 670 made -- worth about $900.

Ackerson said some of the coins are extremely rare, which means those who know coins should be suspicious if they come across them.

The priciest coin: a 1945 dime with "fully split bands." That means the horizontal bands on the Roman fasces (cylindrical bundle of rods) on the back of the coin are clearly double bands and are raised and rounded, as opposed to a single band. Its value: $4,500.

Lowell Police Detective Steve Bukala said there are no suspects, but police are working on leads. He doesn't know whether the thieves knew what they were taking.

"Anything in a safe is going to be of higher value than what's out in the store," he said.

But Bukula does think those who took the coins will have a tough time selling them.

"These are not something you see every day," he said.

Ackerson, who retired from the Lansing post office in 2000, grew fond of Lowell during his years at Flat River Antique Mall, where he had a booth. The Lake Odessa resident stayed there until the mall closed in 2005. A year later, he opened his shop on Main Street.

Ackerson said he has spread word of the theft among area dealers and at the monthly coin show at Rogers Plaza in Wyoming.

"I'm just hoping whoever did this can't keep their mouth shut," he said, "and that whoever they tell will see calling the police as a good way to pick up 500 bucks."

The collection was insured, but Ackerson said he would rather have the coins back.

"That was a lot of hard work," he said.