I live in Southeastern NH, and my family's home was broken into on 09 September 2009. Beside the myriad household items taken, I lost about 90% of my dealer inventory. I was dealing in US Coins under the username ToughCOINS on eBay, and getting better at it with every passing week. It was not normal for me to keep nearly that many coins at home, but faced with certain circumstances earlier in the week, I got careless, and ended up doing so. This was not the first time I had been so careless, but it was the first time I have had my home invaded, and coincidentally having so much inventory on the premises was most unfortunate. While I do not believe the thieves knew about the coins beforehand, and feel they never dreamt they'd come away with such a take, this painful lesson is indelible, and is changing my ways profoundly. I am absolutely sickened over this loss, and am appealing to you for help in locating the individuals offering any of these coins for sale. The household goods were covered by homeowner's insurance, but the coins were not, and I was too short-sighted to take a business policy out on the inventory. For those of you with whom I have done business in the past, I'll obviously be putting things on hold for a short while. My first priority is to find a way to conduct the majority of my business dealings almost entirely out of my safe deposit box, and to make my family safer against any future attempted intrusion. After that, I will be struggling for some time to get my business back on its feet. I have uploaded 4 sheets of my inventory in this post, and have an additional 3 sheets to upload in a separate post. For any help you would offer in identifying others offering my coins for sale, I would be very grateful. Mike Nelson (603) 767-3124 strummer289@metrocast.net
The attachments are too small for me to read even with reading glasses and magnifier... Ihave sympathy for your loss, and pray you catch the thieves... Clinker
Same here. I'm headed for the Philly Whitman show the end of Sept. And I suspect others in here are too. It would be nice if we had something in hand by then. Particularly for slabbed coins (coin/TPG/ID#). And a good description of the better raw coins. Sorry for your loss.
I'm very sorry to hear that Mike. Hopefully the SOBs are caught. As for the sheets, there too small to read, try uploading them through photobucket, or attaching an excel or word document if you have one.
Sorry about your loss. But it's a good lesson, albeit a tough one. Just curious, did you have any security in place, like a safe or home alarm system? I had my home invaded last year and because of that experience, I put in a home alarm system. Makes me feel better.
If this is truly a randon breakin (which they often aren't...just made to look that way)...and I was one of the Knuckleheads that pulled this off, I would point my '92 Monte Carlo towards Boston and start hitting all the Pawn Shops and Coin Stores as fast as I can. You may want to get the word out there if possible. Sorry for your loss...
In many areas it is necessary for pawn shops to hold new material for a set amount of time. Pass your list to the police and if anything matches you should be able to get it back.
This is really a sore note to any individual, coins or no coins. A home invasion type robbery is becoming more and more popular. The loss of those coins too is something that most likely never be recovered. The criminals will probably either spend as just coins or sell at a flea market. Pending on where you live, many pawn shops deal with such coins and there too, they sort of vanish. Unfortuately the tracking of a dealer in coins on the internet is becoming rather also easy and criminals assume your house is loaded with coins. Individuals that deal with ebay forget that when you send something via the mail, you have left a trail for someone to follow. Those that think they fool criminals with a post office box forget too that criminals can and do watch such boxes in the post office. All this is not helping catch the ones mentioned here though. Sort of like just to late. The one good thing is there is no mention of anyone being home at the time. One of my neighbors was home when this happened to him. He lived but spent a lot of time in the hospital. So be glad of that. Coins and money can be replaced but you and your family can't.
Sorry to hear about your loss and I wish you luck on their return. If this was truely random, then they probably don't have a good idea of how to sell them and will just pawn some or try to cash in any loose coins (not knowing their value) at a bank branch. As for the future, you might want to look at getting a good safe. I know they are not foolproof, but I have access to my coins at any time of the day and I would almost (but not quite) like to see some bumbling thieves trying to carry an 800 pound safe out of my basement.
ToughCOINS: I'm very sorry to hear about your devastating loss. Not sure if this will help but for your inventory lists upload problem, you can also upload other file types apart from jpeg image type files. Here are some text file types allowed and their size limits: doc 250.0 KB, txt 250.0 KB, and pdf 250.0 KB Otherwise you will need to host your images elsewhere and link to them, Picasaweb, Photobucket, and the like. Good luck to you on reclaiming your property.
My JPEG files don't seem to get larger when the window enlarges . . . I'm not sure what to do to make them more legible. Therefore, I think, I'll just post a new email with an abbreviated list that covers a much smaller, but most distinguishable portion of the inventory. Stay tuned . . . - Mike Nelson (ToughCOINS)
Finally, after working on this for awhile, I have whittled my inventory list down to something more managable. Below are the coins I feel stand some chance of distinguishing themselves in the market. What remain unlisted are either raw generic dates, or common certified coins for which I failed to record the serial number. Exceptional group of Seated Half Dimes 1844 PCGS MS65 S/N 21797238 (Bright white coin) 1847 NGC MS64 S/N unknown (red & blue toning around light centers) 1848-O NGC MS65 S/N 1940270-001 (creamy color, both sides) 1849-O ANACS MS60 Details (scratched) S/N unknown (bright white coin) 1850-O PCGS AU58 S/N unknown (dark original tonong) 1851-O NGC MS62 S/N 3234472-009 (bands of blue high and low on both sides) 1852-O Raw Near Gem (Brilliant obverse, streaky dark toned reverse) 1855 Raw Gem (bright coin with some speckling around the rims, loads of die polish on the obverse) 1856-O PCGS AU58 S/N unknown (dark original toning) 1868 NGC MS64 S/N 3110883-008 (deep blue green, both sides) Half Dollar 1934 NGC MS63 S/N 3030757-007 (incredible original - mottled crescent toning both sides . . . just one mark worth mention . . . a pinprick on Liberty's torso. Definitely an undergraded coin) Dollars 1860-O Raw MS63+ (Well-struck, lightly toned, with good luster and pretty, mark-free surfaces . . . wonderful) 1972-P TY 2 Ike NGC MS65 S/N unknown $2.50 Gold 1861 TY 2 PCGS MS61 S/N 15878130 1903 PCGS MS63 S/N 15878132 1904 PCGS MS64 S/N 15878133 1905 PCGS MS62 S/N 15878134 1912 PCGS MS62 S/N 15878136 1925-D PCGS AU58 S/N 13270382 1925-D PCGS MS64 S/N 15878141 $5.00 Gold 1852-C PCGS MS62 S/N 14206027 1881 PCGS MS63 S/N 15878143 1883-S NGC AU58 S/N 3188618-006 1894-S Raw XF (2 examples) 1896-S Raw XF (2 examples) 1905-S Raw AU 1907 PCGS MS64 S/N 14206028 $10.00 Gold 1878-S Raw XF 1896-S Raw AU 1897-S NGC MS61 S/N unknown 1905-S PCGS AU58 S/N 14206029 1912-S Raw MS62 (significant mark on bottom half of I in AMERICA and into field below, and VERY light horizontal hairline scratch across entier coin at eagle's neck) 1915-S Raw AU58 (light hairlining should hold back from MS) $20.00 Gold 1889 PCGS Geniune No Grade S/N 14571442 (Unc with filed rims) 1890 Raw (cleaned) 1893 Raw (cleaned) 1902 Raw MS61+ 1909-S Raw MS64 Commem Half Dollar Lexington PCGS MS64 S/N unknown (Brilliant - intensely lustrous) Boone 1937 PCGS MS65 S/N unknown (reddish original color) Monroe PCGS MS64 S/N 03842897 Errors 1974 Cent struck thru Die Cap NGC S/N 1823867-026 1883-O Morgan struck through heavily greased dies, both sides ANACS S/N unknown Turkish 25K Full Brockage PCGS MS67 S/N 03359779 While I'm pretty sure the thieves will remove my cost codes, please note that if they remain, the last 2 letters of my cost code on the back is always MN (for Mike Nelson) along with the date of purchase (give or take a day). This fact would be especially helpful in identifying the other coins in my inventory, that are not listed here as highlights. If you run across coins not on this list that possess such markings on the back, please shoot me a mail quizzing me on date of purchase for a given date and denomiation (I can look that information up in Quickbooks, and hopefully confirm that it is mine). Finally, in addition to the coins above, I had brought home 12 $20 gold pieces; specifically 1879-S, 1881-S, and some combination of 1924 & 1927 (6 & 4 respectively, I think) to use as collateral in acquiring a coin collection. These were part of my retirement savings, and not company inventory, but they were also stolen. Because I bought these coins before establishing my business, they may not have the same cost codes and dates on them. Nonetheless, if presented with the above listed coins, you may safely assume they are mine. To those who will, thank you very much for your generous offer to share your time, - Mike Nelson P.S. - I still have 24 of the above coins listed on eBay at ludicrous prices, simply to keep images on-line where interested parties can see them by typing my company name (toughcoins) into an eBay search.
There's a bunch of posts (by ToughCOINS) on eBay of the stolen coins. This looks like a good approach if the robbers intend to sell any of them on eBay. Good pictures, too...in case anyone sees any of these. http://cgi.ebay.com/STOLEN-1902-P-G...dual?hash=item1c0c4ada1c&_trksid=p3911.c0.m14
