Freeman and Sear? Did they go bust?

So I know they were involved in a few lawsuits back in 2013 and 2014. I was just wondering if anybody knows if they are still in business. I used to browse their site quite often and noticed it's been down. Thanks.

 

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All I know is that they are no longer in business together. And I gather the separtation was not all that friendly (but I'm only guessing from remarks I seen).

 

They were never really in business together. Mr. Sear simply lent his name to Rob's coin venture for the gravitas that it brought. When the rumors of impropriety turned into lawsuits Mr. Sear ended his relationship to limit his potential liability. I have seen many of the lawsuit papers, and most of them to my knowledge dont go after Mr. Sear, just Freeman. Is he still in business? As of last year 'kind of'. His business model was just another pyramid scheme and he was still trying to wheel and deal recently but as far as I know most wont do business with him. If he was smart he would be in a country with no extradition.

Ken

 

I have purchased ancient coins for about a decade, if you do not include the one I bought in the 8th grade in 1966. Freeman & Sear were at the top of my list for RR purchases for several years. I did not receive the last coin I purchased from F&S a couple of years ago. Surprisingly, I did not receive answers to my e-mail questions. I read the same law suit info on line as mentioned above.
David Sear has a web site selling books, and notes he is not associated with that web site. David Michaels left F&S in 2010 to join Heritage Auctions. I bet both have interesting stories to tell.

I wish it to be known that David R. Sear has no connection with the company currently doing business as "Freeman & Sear", this association having been terminated in 2001.
http://www.davidrsear.com/

 

Included in the numbers of ancient coin dealers I have known have been some of the finest gentlemen one could ever hope to meet. On occasion we have seen exceptions to that expectation. When you buy coins from someone that you do not trust fully, you are part of that problem. I don't care if they just sell on eBay or have huge sales from glossy catalogs. Trust and buy from the same places.

 

Well, who does one trust? One has to start somewhere. And to be honest, Rob was an upstanding guy in the beginning. But early on he kept making mention that he wanted to be bigger than all, even than his mentor Bruce McNall. That should have been warning enough. Hmmm. Lets see, he wanted to be bigger than the biggest pyramid coin scammer in history. Yea, thats why I stopped doing business with him in the early 90's. Unfortunately much information was never known to the average collector. The saga goes on. There will always be more like him as there has been in the past. Just as Bernie Madoff was not the first and he wont be the last.

 

Those new here may not remember last year when I recommended the book Fun While It Lasted by Bruce McNall. I did not and do not suggest you buy a new one for money that will go into his pockets but Amazon lists used copies starting at one cent plus postage:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-list...?ie=UTF8&condition=used&qid=1445894258&sr=8-1

Only the first part of the book had much to say about coins but there is a lot there about how the desire to run with the big dogs can get you in trouble.

In the last two years I have stopped patronizing two dealers I know some of you like. When I see tooled coins, fake coins or signs that they don't care about doing the right thing, I'm gone. They won't miss my little business so it is a win-win.

Buy coins from someone you trust.

 

That is a great book, and one everyone should read (though as you say coins are just the first couple of chapters). Sales of the books were supposed to benefit his victims, but alas, who can come up with that many millions from a book only a few will read? I suspect Bruce (and Rob) if they had any brains whatsoever banked most of their ill gotten gains. But, its hard to say. There are a few more recent dealers who have scammed millions. Anyway, for the average collector this is not an issue. If one spends hundreds of thousands to millions on coins, they are the ones to be wary, not those who spend few hundred to a few thousand.

 

Wow..I bought thousands of $ worth of coins from F&S over the last 5-7 years. Their coins were always top notch. Can't seem to find the same quality coins without spending significantly more. Oh well, thanks for the information.

 

Consider yourself lucky, but if you spent more than a hundred thousand or more you would likely have another opinion. In all likelihood you are one of the countless 'masses' at the bottom feeding one or two of those at the top of the pyramid!

 

I had bought several coins from them over the years and had nothing but good experiences. Their website is completely offline and they are no longer going to the shows so I can only assume they're done. I'm sorry to see dealers of high quality material go out of business.

 

Hello friends,
I am new here and I wrote last post by mistake and I am not really sure how to delete it

 

welcome vintage-eu ... oddly, there isn't a delete button (if I accidentally enter something incorrectly or twice, I merely go back and edit the comment and then resave it) ... I admit that a delete option would be a good thing

 

Welcome, vintage-eu! That other post is now gone. Usually you can edit a message for some (short period of) time after you posted it. In other cases just ask us moderators. The easiest way to do that: Click the Report link at the bottom of each message, and add a short comment about why it should be edited or removed.

Christian

 

Welcome, @vintage-eu! Nice choice of avatar

 

Thanks for a very warm welcome

 

So, I know this is an older post, but I have personal reasons to track down Freeman. Anyone know of his whereabouts at all? Is he in Munich running Helios? Any help would be most appreciated.

 

I think Helios went bust several years ago, didn't it?

 

I do not know if they are in business, but the web domain they used,
http://www.helios-numismatik.de/
is available.

 

No, Helios (which was basically F&S Germany) does not exist any more. However, at the same address - Ottostraße 5 in Munich - you now have Solidus Numismatik owned by Robert Stark. Whether he also worked for Helios before, I don't know.

Christian