It finally happened... stolen coins

After about 8 years of buying paper money, coins, and other things from over 2 dozen countries, it finally happened - coins got stolen.

I ordered a lot of 10 late empire coins for $25 from Germany. They weren’t great coins but the price was decent and one was a higher silver content ant.

over a month later, I received a torn envelope stamped “received without contents” - which I believe mean my local post office received the envelope torn open to begin with.

So at some point between New York, and California, someone ripped open an envelope with ONLY 15 euro worth of coins. That’s just low, man.

 

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Coins in question

 

Oh my...I am really sorry this happened to you. I will never mark my packages as coins when I send them. Today I sent three package marked "metal disc".

I hope that you will receive replacements soon or get your money back.

 

Actually, its pretty awesome that in 8 years of buying from all over the world this is the first time it has happened. Gives me faith in the system! Glad it was a small purchase!

 

I was pretty bummed as I was excited to see how those ugly deposits would clean. Oh well....

 

Very sad story my friend. I don't want to be pessimistic, but on Christmas eve 2018 a lot of 280 Roman Imperial, Republican and Byzantine coins was stolen from the offices of Leu Numismatik. The same day, a collection of at least 277 Parthian and Sassanian coins were robbed in France...and in my knowledge never been recovered...so let's hope for a miracle...

 

Same here, very glad I’m not the type to buy multi hundred dollar coins from overseas.

You’d think that buying banknotes from exotic places like Slovakia and Albania would have been failures, but not a single purchase was lost or stolen over the years. I can’t be too sad I guess

 

Oh my word that’s horrific. What a shame

 

One of my coins is from that Leu auction. I paid immediately after the auction and my coin was taken out and shipped 1-2 days before the rest were stolen. Other members of this forum were not as lucky. There are members here whose coins were never recovered.

 

I had a package from a French dealer opened with a knife and the contents stolen. The dealer used to use a rubber stamp with the dealership name and address that he placed on the rear of the envelope. It turned out that someone in the local sorting office to the dealer got to know the stamp and opened as many as he could with a scalpel and removed the contents. I never recovered my coin nor did I get my money back. Insurance would not pay out as they said I had signed for the package on receipt.

I stopped using that dealer.

 

..it happens....sorry, but that's not a bad track record...get refunded and do it again earl!...you should be able to find out where the rip took place by back tracking...who was the last to handle when it was whole...maybe idk..that's what insurance is for...i cant' believe someone would deliver a torn open, empty envelope/pkg...could be the start of us going into a dark ages...

 

.... depressing that such things are happening; So sorry it is not about "ONLY 15 euro worth of coins" it is the fact that they were stolen that makes me mad. I am starting to loose faith in humanity

 

Sorry this happened to you. Even though the amount was small, it's not a nice feeling when someone steals from you. When I was a child, a neighbor stole some item from me I ordered that was advertised on a cereal box. (A magic ring). She showed it off to everyone, and, being a child, I couldn't do anything about it. I have never forgot that feeling.

 

Same here, and like @ominus1 it’s pretty ridiculous to just tear it open like that. At least be a bit more professional!

I think the coins were stolen in the New York, NY distribution center. Can’t imagine the Germans would do that, and my Irvine PO got it directly from New York... guess I’m not too surprise d

 

I'm so sorry; this happened to me a few years ago when I ordered a penny, of all things, from Ireland.

 

Sorry for your loss.

 

Sorry about your loss. But it's possible, considering the huge, unsubtle rip, that this wasn't a deliberate theft, but rather that the package got stuck and damaged in the mail sorting machines at the post office. That happened to me a couple of years ago on a Frank Robinson shipment:

You can see how the entire corner of the envelope was just ripped away. Fortunately, no coins were lost or damaged due to Frank's good packing (coins are between two sealed pieces of cardboard, which are taped to the inside of the envelope).

 

@hotwheelsearl........I'm really sorry to hear about this...and so blatant! For $25 it was a nice group!........
I've been so lucky and in 8 years and haven't lost 1 coin.....For sure more luck than judgement........
'A fun story', About 3 years ago I bought a Kashmir coin for 3 bucks from an Indian dealer that I'd bought from on many occasions before.....Believe it or not the postage time from India to Spain is quicker than from the UK?!....But I live in Catalunya (a province/county of Spain) and the seller had inadvertantly forgot to add 'Spain' to the delivery address! He had ALSO accidently written 'coin' and value '$300'....Next the person working in the post office obviously had failed Geography at school and sent the package off to Thailand!...After about '4 months' the packet arrived at my door....It had stamps on it from Thailand, China, Indonesia and Singapore!.......It had been cut open and re-taped!......But inside I was really surprised to see the coin! and someone had added a note in English....Sorry sir but this coin is not worth $300....It made me smile! And always gives me confidence in People!

 

LOL what a story. That's pretty awesome actually. Glad you got your $3 coin haha

 

Disheartening.