http://www.pjstar.com/stories/100307/POL_BEHHFM61.033.php ROFLMAO...Guess they need to go make some arrests at the US Mint!
Which ones, the people who spent the proof coins, the bank that didn't know the Madison $1's were available or the people who were investigating them as counterfeit?
A little learning is dangerous...There's no reason people in the banking business, law enforcement or the newspaper profession to be ignorant of the nation's striking new coinage, business strikes or proofs, and printing new Federal Reserve noyes/ Clinker
Maybe those cops are living in the past, but according to the mint's own website, these coins became available to the public on June 21. http://catalog.usmint.gov/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProdschedView?storeId=10001&catalogId=10001
Sounds like somebody may have" borrowed" the proof set then spent it. It also sond like the reporters need to researh the "facts" they report on.
Obviously many don't live in high crime areas or they would know that home robberies are extreamely common. If coins are found they are spent as coins. If people in such areas broadcast they have a coin collection, it is eventually borrowed and again, spent as change. Telling insurance agents, neighbors and even relatives, having coin magazines delivered to your home, allows many to know about the coins. Most individuals that rob homes and take a coin collection just spend as change. Some actually take large amounts to a bank for converting to currency. More and more proofs will be in change as the amount of coin collectors increases in areas of high crime.
It's not the reporter that I'm worried about, it's the detectives that even bothered to pursue this. If their only evidence was that they thought the Madison coin wasn't available yet, then I feel sorry for anyone that lives in Macomb, IL. This is just like the German guy who was fined for having stolen goods because he got such a good deal on eBay and should have known it was stolen based on the sale price alone.
