U.S. Mint Worker Stole $2.4M in "Error" Coins

Upwards of 300,000 George Washington MEL coins were released to Florida banks.

This fellow found over 11,000 or them in a multi-box purchase.



At the time, the edge lettering was a two-step minting process where the edge lettering machine was not situated close to the coining press. Once coins were minted, there were literally carted over to the edge lettering process.

From what I understand, the process continued until late 2007 where the edge lettering machine was physically tied to the coining press.

HOWEVER, since missing edge letter coin have appeared in US Mint Sets which are governed by higher quality control standards, many MEL coins still made it out to the public through legitimate channels.

This US Mint Police Officer simply had access to the area where the "known" MEL error coins were stored prior to being accounted for and then sent out for waffling and eventual recycling.

 

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Thanks, I didn't know that.

 

I smell something fishy about the whole case. Why let the thief out on only 50k bail? He made millions! Even had over 2 million cash,boats,cars, and mansions when they caught him. Who is this dealer in CA that bought all the stolen errors from him? Why no mention of his/her name?
I search through 1000's of prez dollars every week. Know how many MEL's I found? 0.0
I noticed all the 2008-2011 mel's popping up on ebay only a few months ago. I knew I smelled a rat.
If they dont repo the new Mel's, I think they will be worth a lot more in the near future because of all this press.
The value should not go down, as most expect. Has anybody found a new mel by roll searching themselves? I bet all the new ones that are for sale are all stolen.

 

It "was" quite suspicious but remember, these large quanitities only surfaced recently and this fella's been doing this since at least 2007. There are some legitimate MEL Coins though.

I could guarantee that it left the Mint legitimately because I pulled it myself from a 2008 Annual Uncirculated Dollar Coin Set which I had to buy off of eBay since none of the 58 sets I bought had it. They didn't have the 2008 Rev of 07 either!

I suppose if the media continues to beat this one that some type of actions may occur but I don;t really know for sure. I'm just watching.

 

"Gray admitted to receiving approximately $2.4 million for the error coins. The coin distributor sent all checks for payment by FedEx to Gray’s residence in North Wildwood.

Gray admitted the $2.4 million from the coin distributor was deposited into his Police and Fire Federal Credit Union account.
Gray admitted that between 2007 and 2009, he failed to report the sale of the coins on his income tax return. Gray admitted he understated his tax liability by approximately $801,651.
The theft of government property charge to which Gray pleaded guilty carries a maximum potential penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The tax evasion charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine."

As usual "tax evasion" or tax fraud are useful tools at the disposal of the government to nailing crooks. Even drug dealers will file their tax forms under the occupation of "consultant" rather than risk additional tax charges if they are caught, the government is glad to get the $$$!

Who was the coin dealer? He/she is obviously an accessory to crime. You don't get tons of mint error coins from a government employee without knowing it is fraud! That dealer is going to a sad sack before long. And isn't it the duty of grading services to report suspected fraud as in this case? Just look at the PNG ethical code.