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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;kirispupis, post: 8093130, member: 118780&quot;]Taking a bit more leveled approach with this:</p><p><br /></p><p>Some years ago, a friend of mine was arrested for fraud. I won&#039;t go into specific details because the case made national news, but he stole about $150k from the ordeal. Although he is my friend, he was extremely stupid and he was absolutely guilty.</p><p><br /></p><p>However, the government and media decided to make an example of him. The local paper listed his recent travels to such exotic destinations as France and Italy. They put a photo of his house on the front page and people soon started stalking him, yelling at him, and banging on his door. His professional licenses were revoked and he went to prison.</p><p><br /></p><p>The emotional anguish of the intense public ridicule led him to attempt suicide. For years the guy was a complete train wreck. He still hasn&#039;t fully recovered.</p><p><br /></p><p>Yes. What he did was wrong, but the media went out of their way to destroy him. There is absolutely no unbiased reporting in today&#039;s media. They can&#039;t just state the facts but need to rile you up for ratings.</p><p><br /></p><p>Personally, I don&#039;t know Mr. Steinhardt. Maybe he&#039;s a complete SOB and maybe he&#039;s a decent guy who did something stupid in not verifying the provenance of his artifacts. Maybe, like my friend, he knew that he was doing something wrong when he did it. Maybe, like my friend, he&#039;s still a decent person who did a bad thing. I really don&#039;t know and probably never will.</p><p><br /></p><p>Personally, I buy most of my coins without provenance. If I had as much money as Mr. Steinhardt, I would insist on provenance, but I don&#039;t. To my knowledge, no coin I own has been looted, but I really have no way of verifying that. I believe the odds are extremely small that a nation will decide that one of my modestly-priced coins is a national treasure, and guys with black suits will ring my doorbell and not be very nice.</p><p><br /></p><p>However, I do hope in the infinitesimal odds that the above happens, and the media blasts my coins, financial status, previous travels, and national original (I&#039;m Luxembourgish - so we can&#039;t be trusted), that my friends and everyone here will remember that I&#039;m still a decent person.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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