At a pawn shop of all places

I will tell you steve.e I was in law enforcement for 32 years and if you had came to me with a problem like that, I would have made life so bad for that guy that he would have given your money back with a smile and a have a nice day. Pawn shops must maintain a log of all transactions with identification of the persons that they sell to and purchase from and the books can be checked by law enforcement whenever the shop is open. In addition to that they are obligated to show law enforcement all items and maintain a list of stolen items that is given to them by law enforcement. I would have been in his shop everyday, three or four times each day...sure thing he would have been glad to cough up the 50 bucks..you can bet on it.. Try to find a honest cop in your area and do it to the guy...he knew what he was doing and now thinks he got away with it.

 

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I got my money back. He was totaly cool.
He asked if i had someone check it out. And i told him the case. Put fake on the 2×2 and said sorry.

 

See how easy.

 

Not to say "I told you so" to certain posters on this thread, but I'll point out that giving the seller a chance to make things right has now made the OP whole.

 

Happy it worked out for you.

 

Nothing like a happy ending!

 

Yup.

 

Very happy for you that this worked out. Actually, I’m kind of surprised at his response. I felt like this would be a lost cause. Glad my feelings were proven wrong.

 

steve.e good that you got your money back. I was going to write today that I had read a post from nuMRmatist on your thread yesterday and as usual I missed the intended meaning of his post about the coin being a counterfeit and that a check with the Secret Service would be a good idea...he is and was correct...in that what the shop dealer did was KNOWINGLY USE A COUNTERFEIT (US) COIN (MONEY) to purchase something of value...that being your 50 dollars. That little transaction put him into a FELONY of FEDERAL Law.
I expect that may have been why he returned your money with no argument. This is twisting the law to reach a correct end but if a arrest have been made I expect the Feds could have convicted him.
You done good guy.

 

He'll just sell it to someone else who won't return it.
He knew it was bad, when he asked Steve if he had someone check it out.

 

Yes, he probably knew it was fake but now that someone returned it with information about it being fake, selling it now without that information being passed on to the next buyer is much worse. In the first sale he could make the argument that he didn't know it was fake.

 

I expect you are right Mike K. greed often over powers ones judgement.
I suspect he knew it was bad when he bought it from the guy that sold it to him and then when he sold it to steve.e ( or rather bought 50 dollars from steve.e with it).
I sure would never do anything with that guy again...ever.

 

You are right wxcoin but a few visits from our friendly Secret Service just may put him in the right mind set for future transactions with counterfeit coins he knows are counterfeit.

 

Y'all did see the part of steve.e's post where he watched the guy write "fake" on the holder, right?

Yes, he could pop it out of the holder as soon as Steve walks out the door. But not every pawnbroker is a crook all the time.

 

They’re not going to spend their time on a 50 dollar sale that doesn’t threaten commerce in anyway. If it was a bill yes they’d go to try and trace it to the source, a collector coin from one incident they’d take a report at best

 

As an educational exercise, I would suggest you call your local SS office, and see if they would even consider investigating a situation like the one presented in this thread.

Or, you can read my earlier post #33

In a nutshell - It is not considered a counterfeit, and the SS would not be interested.

 

You guys are probably all right in your posts but I don't like to see people being taken by greedy individuals....bad habit I have...

 

I agree that not all pawnbrokers are greedy, scavenger bottom fishers taking advantage and exploiting people who are in a bad situation. Poor, on hard times, drug addicts, alcoholics, gamblers, etc. But many of them are sharks looking to feed on the blood of the less fortunate.
As for this coin in question, I don't believe there is only one coin. I believe he had a bunch of these fakes and has been selling them at a 50-1 markup.

 

It may appear like it at times, but flip the situation. They are not experts in everything. In fact, most pawn brokers simply cannot tell the difference between fakes and real coins. Same with guitars and other stuff they buy. This means they have to pay little if they want to profit after counterfeits they unknowingly buy, expenses, etc.

 

A mighty wide brush a lot of you paint pawnbrokers with. I came on to suggest that Steve first try to return the coin before taking these drastic measures that were suggested here. I see that he got his money back with no problem so maybe we should withhold quick judgement on businesses and individuals. My guess is that most of you that badmouth pawnshops have not taken the time to get to know your local pawnbrokers. Some are fellow coin enthusiasts like yourselves. Strike up a relationship with some, you can get some incredible deals because like medoraman pointed out, they are not experts in everything.