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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 7624674, member: 19463&quot;]I am in no position to have a worthy opinion on the coin in question but I most certainly do have an opinion on how a cast might survive&nbsp; but not the struck original.&nbsp; One answer is prettier than the other:</p><p><br /></p><p>1. Several of us have coins that have been in our possessions for over fifty years.&nbsp; I know at least a half dozen other collectors who can exceed that number and another who has purchased coins from private collections through dealers who do not run auctions or issue illustrated catalogs.&nbsp; We here are a bit unusual in that we participate publicly in open discussions of coins.&nbsp; Many collectors do not.&nbsp; We have no idea what they have, how long they had it or whether they bought it or inherited it from a parent. </p><p><br /></p><p>2. The ugly answer is that many lives were lost in WWII when several great cities were bombed.&nbsp; Some works of art were moved to safety either by their owners or stolen by the opposing forces.&nbsp; Some were not so lucky. It would be nice to think that there is a &#039;Raiders of the Lost Ark&#039; style warehouse that contains the coins looted or secreted away but the fact remains that some coins were in the wrong place at the wrong time.&nbsp; Some were probably melted intentionally; some in a ball of fire.&nbsp; Are there any war veterans still alive who are not open about what they took from enemy cities?&nbsp; Are there boxes of junk in countless attics that once belonged to someone who cared?&nbsp; It would be interesting to know how many unpublished coins exist that have not changed hands in the last century but were &#039;above ground&#039; the whole time.&nbsp; Possibilities are endless.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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