Near the last feather and just above the hair curl you can see an L on it's side : for James Longacre, the designer of the Indian Cent.
The L is on all subsequent issues of the Indian Cent from 1865 - 1909. It was not a one year thing...
I saw this on F/B coin page. First thought was inside job / insurance; check video surveillance, and LEO's are ready to move in... ?????????????
Lately, all coins sent in to get certified are laser scanned, so even if the thief broke it out to recertify, any one of the major grading services would immediately identify it. My guess is this 1864 PR65 cent was misplaced. Otherwise, I will make a nice offer to the thief. Ofcourse, confidentially. Ha, ha!
Whoops, I was under the impression it was a one year deal. I guess it makes sense since they went from the rounded bust to the pointed bust that year and never went back.
That's horrible. I stop by Rick's table every show, he always has the best IHC's on the floor. Did he find out about this during the show, or did he not realize it was missing until afterwards?
My understanding is the the laser scanning/digital fingerprinting is only done on coins submitted under the Secure Plus level.
Shame that someone had the chance to "lift" this piece! The Chinese method of "attitude adjustment" should be used here,stump/double-bit axe and won't happen again,ever....
Methinks, thinking as a cynic, the coin will not surface if it was stolen "on order". It will be tucked away in someones collection. However, how many folks want / "order to steal " a 127K Indian coin. There must be a short list of wealthy interested collectors, and a shorter list of collectors looking for a slabbed Proof 1864 Indian. However, if it's a foreign collector, the task becomes more difficult. If its a foreign non-western Europe collector, its gone. If its not just misplaced, and is in fact stolen, the Insurence Company is "out" a significant sum and should pull out all the stoppers and pursue the thief as well as the buyer.
Any update on this? Was this the only coin stolen from that case? Was the coin shown to anyone that day?
I'm still lost as to how this coin could have been stolen. Where was a coin with that high a value stored at the show, where was it taken from?
No, the coin itself could easily be sold, but the question would be to whom and for how much; 'tis folly to assume a thief would expect or be looking for anywhere close to its "clean" value, or care about its rarity. I've little doubt that there are a fair number of "collectors" out there who, even if they know or just suspect it has been stolen, would still be pleased as punch to have the opportunity to "buy" at the "right" price. This is an unfortunate reality of this hobby.
That is the first thing I thought of as well. How do you just hand over a $127,000 coin to someone at a show and not get it back? Likely this wasn't the case, but why wasn't it being look after by anyone? Display cabinets should all be locked. That would mean a key is involved. Or was it being protected by on site security overnight? Idhair: Give us more details so we can narrow the thought process. This sounds to me to be an inside job. If a thief can get $20,000 for it, that is $20,000 he didn't have before hand. Then someone 25 years from now can say they bought this coin as part of a private collection offered for sale. Of course it will be cracked out and insiders will sell it among themselves until some poor, honest smuck, sells it in the open market and it's confiscated as contraband. He looses, everyone else gains. Think this doesn't happen? Check all the missing art pieces, stolen from galleries and museums, that are never found.
Thats total BS. I collect Indian heads and if someone I knew and was close to said something like the dealer turned his head for a minute and did not see me pocket this, how much will you give me for it? I would tell them they had two choices send it back, or I would let them know who took it, they could choose which one they wanted to go with. I would hope that the coin will turn up, that it was misplaced, I know there are thieves, but what good will that coin do, they cannot sell it and hope that they will not be found out, they would have to tell the buyer it is stolen otherwise it might be for sale again and if it does come up, the buyer I am sure will let them know where they got the coin. So the only person they could sell it to would be some person who cannot show it off to anyone, for fear they will get caught and lose it, and if by some chance they quietly stick it away in their collection when they die it will turn up and it will end up destroying their estate. Because if the person is caught, unless they have immaculate records for their coin purchases every coin in their collection will be considered stolen, just like when the cops catch a burglar, they pin every unsolved burglary on them every coin in the poor dopes collection who stole them will be fair game to close any coin thefts out there.
Thats total BS. I collect Indian heads and if someone I knew and was close to said something like the dealer turned his head for a minute and did not see me pocket this, how much will you give me for it? I would tell them they had two choices send it back, or I would let them know who took it, they could choose which one they wanted to go with. I would hope that the coin will turn up, that it was misplaced, I know there are thieves, but what good will that coin do, they cannot sell it and hope that they will not be found out, they would have to tell the buyer it is stolen otherwise it might be for sale again and if it does come up, the buyer I am sure will let them know where they got the coin. So the only person they could sell it to would be some person who cannot show it off to anyone, for fear they will get caught and lose it, and if by some chance they quietly stick it away in their collection when they die it will turn up and it will end up destroying their estate. Because if the person is caught, unless they have immaculate records for their coin purchases every coin in their collection will be considered stolen, just like when the cops catch a burglar, they pin every unsolved burglary on them every coin in the poor dopes collection who stole them will be fair game to close any coin thefts out there.