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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;blsmothermon, post: 1066821, member: 26158&quot;]I have wondered the same thing, however it is the nature of the beast. Whether the world we live in is digital or analog, coin theft is a real problem. I would figure that a very small percentage of &#039;finds&#039; on here are stolen. I think it is more of a problem in the brick and mortar shops. I base my opinion on the following experiences. I have been doing business with the same coin shop for 20+ years and I visit once every 3 months on average in the last couple years. At least three times, while shopping, young men in puffy jackets and baggy pants come in with <u>several</u> ounces of silver to sell. Of course, you can feel the nervous energy among the clientele in the shop, because we all KNOW the stuff is stolen or was payment for something illegal. The shop owner abides by the law of course, he takes photocopies of their ID&#039;s, signed statements of legitimacy, etc. and buys their metal and treats them just like anyone else. (Though he may shave his buy price a couple bucks.)&nbsp; I think the local shops see alot more stolen product in a month than has been seen on CoinTalk since its beginning. By the nature of any stolen product, all the thief is looking for is money, they don&#039;t care about getting what something is &quot;worth&quot;. That&#039;s why you can buy a $500 TV off a crackhead $30. So, I don&#039;t think much of it shows up here, because they don&#039;t care what it is &quot;worth&quot;. They are spending their time out there trying to sell it for whatever they can get.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>On the subject of online anonymity, Chris is right, there is no such thing. It is part of our nature as humans to share things about ourselves with each other. I used to do skip trace work for collections, and I can guarantee you that everyone leaves a trail. The folks on here who have made hundreds and thousands of posts (including myself) share tiny slivers of our life without knowing it. I would bet that you could look back through the posts of many members here and assemble enough personal info to go to any publicly available &#039;whitepages&#039; type site and find address, phone number, etc. We are humans and humans share, it is just our nature.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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