A few Stolen Ancient Coins if you ever see them

Cont.

So, I should mention something that someone asked earlier elsewhere. Insurance??
Well, I had actually spent a good amount of time on the phone with my insurance company a year earlier about making sure my coins were covered. A premium increase and a inventory list later I was covered.

Anyway, it was late November 2012 and I was restarting an out of state project that required me to be gone 3-4 days each week. Within a week of me starting the job I received a phone call from my wife telling me we had been burglarized. Nobody was home, everyone was safe, but the coins were gone. I had forgotten to return them to storage and had left them out on a table.

This is where Carthago jumps in to help. My collection was on-line in a couple places and when I informed the board (Forum) of the theft, he copied the photos and pasted them into an announcement. I was a 2 hr drive away and on the return drive I called the insurance company. They quickly informed me that they had no record of the inventory list or any documentation that would indicate I was insured for the coins. I had lost my coins and insurance in a flash.

Police, interviews, fingerprints, etc followed. And nothing came of it. I was completely dejected, it was a very sad Holiday season ahead. The family was traumatized by the burglary, my collecting was done and that was that. Black clouds. People suck, etc.

Then I got a very public post from an alias I vaguely recognized announcing they were going to jump the gun and carry though on a promise made a couple years earlier. To my surprise the buyer of that Augustus had heard about the burglary and he wanted to return the Augustus to me. He wanted it to be the first coin in my new collection. It was a remarkable offer that I quickly turned down as too generous and unnecessary, although the sentiment was appreciated. I had forgotten the promise made at the time of sale. I was touched but adamant in the emails that followed.

And then one day in the 3rd week of December on a cold and not very happy day, the mailman drove up the driveway.

Gotta stop here. Will finish next post.

 

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I clicked "like" not because I like what happened to you, your family, and your coins but because I like that you are taking the time to share your story

 

+1

 

Retelling it involves reliving it and it is still a bit exhausting to recount.

Part III

So it is a cold December morning, Dec 22nd to be precise and I am now trying to change jobs (so I can be home with the still traumatized family,) I have lost my coins, the insurance is a sham, Christmas is in a day and well, life pretty much sucks because people suck. We have our health. And as Sam Malone of Cheers once replied "I have my health? is that how bad things are, that I have to resort to...I have my health." In fact our health was important to us. Tragedy was all around...........and then....... the mailman........... drove up the driveway.

Unshaven, crabby, sullen and defeated I head out to see my mailman of 12 years. I can see Gerard carrying a large cardboard envelope with what would turn out to be a signed delivery from Australia. What I didn't mention earlier, but my trembling hands already knew, was that the Augustus from Ephesus (where I have been), the one with my birth sign (Capricorn), the plate coin out of my edition of Sutherland, THAT coin had gone to a collector in Australia.

Let me say now, that I guess I lied, I can't finish in this post, but let me paste here exactly what I posted on Dec 23, 2012 a day after I signed for that envelope. Because I don't want to dilute or lose what happened. I just re-read it and I forget at times how much it really meant. It is long so I will put it in the next post that follows.

 

Part III cont

Dec 23rd 2012 on another board

I don't know how to start this post, so I will just start with saying................for the first time, in a very, very long time...........I have experienced a true act of unselfish kindness...........and it has been humbling.

True to his word, and to my complete astonishment............John did what he set out to do............he kept a promise he was unbeholden to.....and sent me the gift of a coin. My old coin, and previous to that....William Joys coin. A coin whose sale haunted me regularly for 3 years.

Yesterday, late morning, the postman drove up to our door. I was stunned when he handed me an envelope....marked Australia. Stunned doesn't come close to describing how I felt. My postman got choked up as I told him what was possibly in the package. He knew of the robbery and couldn't believe Johns offer. And he exclaimed as I removed the coin from the envelope "it restores your faith in humanity" He said the whole thing gave him the chills.

There is a reason for that.

Dwarfing the trauma of the robbery, there was a well publicized school shooting in a small town very close to us last week. I would have to say that most people in the state are still in mourning. Almost everyone I run into and speak to has conveyed a despair about the nature of man. Folks are heartbroken.

The coin.....the gift....the circumstances around it.....well for my friends who have heard the story, it has helped alleviate a bit of that despair.

We had a small party last night for several couples and their children. These are dear friends and as I was telling them the story of the robbery, of Johns gesture, of my complete disbelief that he was serious............and as they were nodding in agreement...........I handed them the coin........

And it was all in their faces.....the awe.......the sheer awe. smiles and teared eyes.......like people restored. They glowed for the rest of the night......it made them feel so good to know that someone like John existed. It was a ray of light in an otherwise dark week. An unheard of act of generosity at a time, and in a place, where it could not have been needed more.

They won't be the last to hear this story.........

Thank you John

As you can see, 3 years on and I am still making sure they were not the last to hear this story.

I have to stop here for now. You all get bored with this? well it is almost over......

 

Not bored but riveted.

 

What he said. The circumstances are truly unfortunate, but thanks for sharing this story with us.

 

I have to stop here for now. You all get bored with this? well it is almost over...... [/QUOTE]
Absolutely not bored, riveted also. I'm so sorry that it happened though.

 

Wow! What a story! I hope that somehow, though, you are able to recover the stolen coins.

 

Part IV

fast forward to Feb 29, 2012 ............yes it was a leap year.

I am sitting in a large conference room in the corporate offices of my new employer. I am telling a new colleague from Australia about how a couple months earlier one of his countrymen did the most incredible thing. I told him about the robbery and the lost coins and the Augustus. I tell him about the surprise of the packages arrival, and the effect it had on everyone......... from our mailman to the friends at the get together that evening, and on every person who had heard the story since.

I told him how during my interview with the company, the robbery and the Christmas Coin (the moniker bestowed that day in December) had become the focus of the entire interview. I told him that after a long discussion about the human condition, a life well spent, values, ethics and judgement..........I had the job. The coin and its donor continued to have an impact on my life and that of others. All in all a pretty great ending to a horrible experience for everyone. How could I feel better?

The next day, while sitting through more training, I got an email. Here is what I posted elsewhere that day March 1st, 2012

Update

One of my stolen items has been recovered and is now is the hands of the police. My James I "South Sea Bubble" medal, to be precise.

I received an email from Sveto at ANE (whom I originally bought the medal from last year) He had been contacted by a dealer close to my town, who had been offered a medal by another dealer. This second dealer, while doing research, saw the photos on Forum and realized it was stolen. He then tracked the medal back to ANE and contacted Sveto to see if it had been stolen during shipping. Sveto informed him it had actually been stolen from me.

So Sveto put me in contact with the second dealer, who then put me in contact with the third dealer (who had the medal at his shop.) Long story short..........I informed the police and they seized the medal and the ID of the seller. Side note...the dealer who bought the medal for about $100 wanted me to pay him $200 to get it back. Although I agreed.........the police had a different view. They said he had no right to charge me and they seized the coin without telling me.

Currently the police are tracking down the seller and expect to make an arrest. Hopefully they will be able to determine where the other coins ended up.

The most surprising thing to me is that posting the photos on Forum and here, actually achieved the goal. As hoped, the medal made it to a dealer who then contacted another dealer and in the process of researching.......my medal was recognized by someone

Of course the medal will be held in evidence by the courts, as will any other they recover (hopefully recover)............but......at least now I know where one of them is and hopefully the others will follow.

Exactly 90 days from the date of the burglary, the first coin/medal has been recovered.

A bit unbelievable........but a huge relief

BR


I learned subsequently that the actual figure paid was $32, but more about that later. The post above was after several quick phone calls and a race back to training. What happens in the real world as opposed to CSI-Wherever I will leave for the next post. Once again, here is the medal that is the subject of the post above. Save you from paging backwards



George I and James III, The South Sea Bubble (Appeal against the House of Hannover), Silver Medal (50 mm, 51 gm.) 1721, by O. Hamerani EF Rare
Obv: VNICA SALVS, Bust of the Pretender James III right,
Rev: QVID GRAVIVS CAPTA, Britannia seated weeps as the Horse of Hanover tramples on the Lion and Unicorn, behind a family escape with a few possessions, view of the City of London in the distance Eimer 493. A few small marks, some patches of dark toning, otherwise EF. Rare

Gotta run for now. Son has a soccer game.



__________________

 

Oh, no, I never had it in hand. I remember the coin from the Forvm gallery and from you posting it on the boards. Knowing the story I would have recognized it at first glance, and told you immediately of course

Best
Q