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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;-jeffB, post: 1464691, member: 27832&quot;]Oh, I really, <i>really</i> don&#039;t want to do this... but I think I&#039;m ethically obligated.</p><p><br /></p><p>THR&#039;s eBay accounts are/were coinsantiques.10, coinsantiques.13, coinsantiques.18, coinsantiques.22, coinsantiques.25, and coinsantiques.18. I know this because I bought quite a lot from them before I became aware of the claims against them. They stopped selling about the time this all blew up.</p><p><br /></p><p>The account I most often bought from, coinsantiques.18, sold a variety of mostly numismatic material. It included bundles of proof sets, &quot;unsearched&quot; lots of various types of coins (IHCs, Liberty nickels, Buffalo nickels, seated and Barber dimes, quarters and halves), small lots of slabbed silver dollars, and various other things.</p><p><br /></p><p>For the Liberty nickel lots, they originally laid out all the coins on a scanner and showed obverse and reverse images; later, they just dumped them in piles onto a scanner. In those piles, you could sometimes see an S mint-mark or an 1885 or 1886 date; those lots typically were bid higher, of course.</p><p><br /></p><p>For the dimes, quarters and halves, they would image both sides of the whole lot using a scanner. I saw lots with VERY key dates (1892-o and 1892-s halves, 1896-s and 1913-s quarters), and some coins in higher grades (f-vf and occasionally higher). The keys always appeared in lots, just like the commons; they were never auctioned separately.</p><p><br /></p><p>In every case, THR listed the lot as a true auction, started at 99 cents. In every case, they described the lot clearly and conservatively.</p><p><br /></p><p>I bought many lots. I was outbid on many more; there was a lot of competition, most of it from repeat customers, judging by the feedback they left. I filled most of a Barber half collection from those lots. I bought a lot of rounds for $50 that was listed as &quot;metal content unknown&quot;, verified that they were .999 silver, and sold them at the next LCS for over $200. I bid on a roll of Kennedy halves that were not listed as silver in the description, but looked like it in the image; they were, and I got them for $100, when melt was over $220. (Somebody else clearly suspected they were silver, but wasn&#039;t bold enough to bid higher; since they were listed with a 7-day unconditional return, I figured I was risking only return postage.)</p><p><br /></p><p>I don&#039;t know whether THR tried to pass fakes; I didn&#039;t receive any myself. I did see lots that were listed as &quot;reproductions&quot; or &quot;metal content unknown&quot;, and all non-bulk lots were listed with return privileges.</p><p><br /></p><p>I don&#039;t know what THR was melting. They rarely listed gold, but did occasionally list modern gold commemoratives. They never listed bulk Mercury or Roosevelt dimes, Washington quarters, or WL, Franklin or Kennedy halves -- I saw occasional single-date rolls of each, but no &quot;piles&quot; of them. As I said before, there were many lots of Barber coins, along with Standing Liberty quarters, Seated Liberty in all denominations, Bust dimes and half dimes, 40% Ikes, and miscellaneous older commemoratives. Based on what I saw, they were NOT wantonly sending everything to the pots.</p><p><br /></p><p>Now I&#039;ve got quite a lot of coinage that came from what appears to be a tainted source. I got some good deals, and no bad ones, but I know that those deals arose because someone, somewhere, got a really rotten deal when they sold. And I&#039;m not sure what to do on the basis of that knowledge. I&#039;m a bargain hunter, and you generally get bargains by knowing something that your seller doesn&#039;t. Where does the ethical line fall?[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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