Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;red_spork, post: 6408256, member: 74282&quot;]It&#039;s not always quite that simple. I have a coin, reportedly deaccessioned from a major American museum, which I purchased in-person for cash from a well-known dealer some years ago whom I haven&#039;t spoken to since. These coins were sold in group lots at an auction in the 1990s which advised that prospective buyers should view the lots in-person and there are no pictures of the groups as far as I know. My coin is not specifically listed under any of these group lots, but came with the museum&#039;s ticket and I was able to trace it&#039;s accession.</p><p><br /></p><p>When I reached out to the museum to ask about its deaccession and any other records they may have about the coin, the museum was less than helpful(in fact, they didn&#039;t return any of my emails at all). If tomorrow, they propose that my coin was stolen and it should be returned, should I return it to them? I can prove it was in their collection at one point, but I can&#039;t prove for certain it was ever sold, so really if it came down to it I&#039;d have to either hope that the auction house had records, the dealer has records proving exactly which group lot the coin was from(at the time, he didn&#039;t), or that the museum has records. Personally, I&#039;d be keeping my coin absent additional evidence such as a police report. I have every reason to believe it isn&#039;t stolen, but no real way to prove it, and the museum has a documented record of buying and selling lots of coins over the past century.</p><p><br /></p><p>Yale&#039;s claims that the coins were stolen should not be taken at face value unless they have more proof than &quot;these coins were previously in our collection&quot;. It would be entirely different if they didn&#039;t have a documented history of buying and selling many coins, including the Brashear Doubloon that was the centerpiece of the collection. Of course, we have very little information at this point, but hopefully more will come out.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in