There Ought To Be A Law

well, chris, they did didn't they? it just so happened that the numismatic value was 0 in most cases. heh.

Sounds like you people don't get out much. This goes on all the time at coin stores, coin shows, pawn shops, etc. If people don't know what they have and try to sell it, someone will always try for some fantastic low price. I've seen so many situations where this happens. I've seen a person sell a large bag of Mercury dimes for double face value at a coin show. I was watching as a dealer at a coin store give a little old lady about double face value for rolls of Buffalo nickels. And so many other situations like that. I'm sure at that place you were at many, many people lost out on some valuable items due to not knowing what they had.
Ever watch those things on TV for sending in your Gold? Note how they say stupid things like we are giving a 20% bonus today only. Imagine how many people send in a few thousand dollars worth of Gold items and get a few hundred dollars for them.
What you experienced goes on so many times every day you would really get ticked off if you could witness it all the time.

Thought about it a little bit and there is a law ! That law says they cannot force you to come in or force you to sell if you don't want to. A right to choose is the greatest law we have.

The sad thing about this story is that a lot of people who bring in slabbed coins or key dates acquired these as an inheritance. They maybe don't do the research and the unscrupulous buyers are able to "steal" these coins. Because these people move from town to town they probably don't care that they may be confronted by the odd knowledgeable collector.