First the Dollar coin, now this. http://www.katu.com/news/14007687.html I figure make the replacement from melted down Sac Dollars. It's a little bit less "pure" than Brass.....
not only should that be done make it known with a little plaque that its made of sacs, noone will want it then. after all noone wants them now.
I'm wondering how they made the connection between the theft and drug money myself. A thief is a thief and times are getting tougher. I work on construction sites every day and ANYTHING metal seems to be fair game and other things as well. Been to sites where a building is gutted of all copper pipe, any electrical, water heaters, furnaces etc. If they can get it they will.
i guess they assume if you're insane/desperate enough to steal this you're probably on drugs. (insert another sac joke here)
I read in the April CoinValues page 130 (I come from the future) that US Sacagawea dollars are legal-tender in Ecuador. The following comes from http://www.helium.com/tm/224059/another-dollar-withoutpulling-paper "In September, 2000, U.S. currency officially became legal tender throughout Ecuador in an effort to stabilize the South American nation's shaky economy and rampant inflation of the up-till-then monetary unit, the sucre. Commencing on April 15, 2002 the U.S. began sending some $500 million of the unwanted Sacagawea dollar coins to Ecuador for use as circulating currency. And, based on my personal business experience in Ecuador, circulating they are."
Here's a SAC I have that was pulled from circulation in Ecuador last year. Its gotten some good use, more than I've seen on any in the US.
Who else would be stupid enough to steal a couple hundred pound bronze/brass statue? Then again, if CSI has taught me anything, crackheads would be better off grabbing bags full of pennies from the bank, sort out the "Coppers" from the "Zincs," and cashing in the Coppers to some shady scrap metal dealer. Something "meticulous" to do while high. And more legally profitable than stealing private property.
Its getting to the point that they need to have metal recyclers do some kind of due diligence if they have things come in that look suspicious. If you ran the metal recycling company, and some one brought in a 5 foot tall statue (or even pices of a statue that had been cut up) there's no way you wouldn't have some kind of clue that something was fishy. I don't know what they could do, but maybe even if they required ID on suspicious looking stuff. I don't know how you would police that. Over spring break last year, someone stole all of the copper from the airconditioning units at my kids school. It was tens of thousands of dollars to get it replaced and get the units back up and working again. One of the teachers had left her car in the parkign lot over night. When she got back, someone had stole the cateletic (sp) converter. It cost $300 to fix it. The mechanic said that there is some type of metal in it that is worth a lot of money to recycle. They have had a lot of people coming in with the same thing happening. How long till we see this one in the recycle bin?
Catalytic converters contain platinum. Unscroupulous scrap dealers will pay $$$ for them. Platinum prices are around $1650 per ounce right now. We had a rash of thefts around here where thiefs went to a used car lot at night and stole dozens at a time. Then one of the Used Car Dealers got wise and camped out with his double barrel shotgun and caught the lowlifes. Andy
You don't have to be on drugs to be stupid. There are "rings" out there now hitting construction sites. Recently one of them hit a job site in broad daylight. Stole tools out of 9 vehicles. Where they really get stupid is going to a different site to sell tools. We know they are stolen and thay are greeted with a lot of threats of bodily harm. Kind of like the Hibernias of colonial times. Irish didn't want them so ship them to the colonies!
