Went to a Gun show this weekend And found one dealer there that had a few nice original Common Date Morgan Dollars on his table..probably in around a XF grade. I asked about the price and he told me they were $22 each. A couple were slightly better dates. I told him I would be back and would probably take a couple off his hands. After a walk around I returned to his table and found him sitting there with what looked like a large pencil eraser rubbing the heck out of the coins. He looked up and told me "I figured I'd polish them up for you" The coins were ruined. I bought a Engelhard Silver Bar instead.
In my experience there are many fake coins at gun shows. I've considered setting up at some gun shows with bulk 90%, silver dollars, bars, etc. But I've never gotten around to it.
Been done before...plenty. At one show in Texas decades ago, a gun went off and the bullet ricocheted off the ceiling and grazed an ancient coin dealer. When the gun went off, everyone ducked and you never saw so many guns pulled out at the ready.
Yes K. Some dealers do put a pre 1898 cartridge revolver or a black powder muzzle loader in their case as eye candy to get guys to stop. Usually they are way overpriced though because they don't want to sell the eye candy
I know a couple who take a lot of coins..both gold and silver..along with Bullion to sell at Gun shows. They were the ones I bought the Silver bar from.
At one of the first coin shows I ever went to, the business was slow and I was conversing with one of the dealers. I innocently asked him "What do you do for security"...I got a fishy look, and then he told me that he would just have to catch the eye of one of the many plainclothes guards around the place and then look at me to have me followed the rest of the time I was at the show. He then proceeded to mention that he carried a .45 with him and related how that he was staying at a motel with his young son at one of the shows when the window started sliding open on the side where his son's bed was. He was afraid that his son might rise up and he would shoot him, so he called out for whoever it was to leave now. Turns out it was a visiting basketball team whose members were staying at the motel and some of them had slipped out to get a pizza and were returning to the wrong room and didn't want to wake the other people in the room...scary.
One problem with guns at coin shows is that many locations are now becoming "gun free zones". At the convention center where the Muncie club had their show they told us that if they saw a single gun, in a case, on an attendee, or on a dealer, they would shut us down right then and there and make everyone leave.
After reading the OP, I had to chuckle...oh the humanity! I hope you told him what he was doing to the coins was not acceptable.
