ANA Gold Stolen At St Louis

Seems like a legitimate story; what's wrong with the reporting? Historical accuracy?

Little things like using face as their "historical value", which is probably in six digits.

More the lowest-common-denominator approach; there was not one iota of information in the press release which could help any numismatist, anywhere, help get those coins back. Bad reporting and useless pix sounds about right to me. Good for the AP wire and nothing else.

Recovering stolen coins is about publicity. Wide, fast publicity. Unless it was a hit commissioned by a collector who will now keep the coins forever, the perps are going to need to offload that stuff fast. They obviously knew what they were getting. Note the blurb in the release referring to the coins as the "most valuable part of the exhibit." In fact, we're discussing another example of one of those coins here.

Their odds of realizing any decent return lies with fencing them through an unknowing dealer. That means dates, denominations and grades need to get into the public infostream now.

Keep in mind, the only reason anyone here heard about it is because I accidentally ran across an article several days old.

Actual value was closer to $10,000, the ANA doesn't put the really good stuff in their small traveling exhibits. Six coins were stolen- 1849 Seated Liberty $1 VF, 1861 $2 1/2 VF, 1857 $3 AU, 1862 $5 AU, 1847 $10 VF, and 1861 $20 EF. The exhibit had been set up for less than 48 hours over a weekend and it was not scheduled to officially open until Monday. The display was in an area with no security camera and no stationed personnel. The Museum of Transportation utilizes alot of volunteers and I suspect this was a crime of opportunity. Every single coin shop in the St Louis area has the list of dates and conditions so they will be tough to fence locally.

I saw the information on VW on the 15th but could have sworn I had already seen it being discussed here. anyway here is the CoinWorld newsletter about it http://www.coinworldonline.com/arti...seum-stolen/

The thief probably realized he/she was not going to be able to sell the coins without getting caught and just returned them.

Ed
ANA LM-3175

if the information hadn't gotten out as fast as it did it may have had a whole different out come. That is where these forums and websites can really spread the word fast and make it almost impossible or at least difficult for a thief to sell their stolen goods