I actually have a coin in my collection fromm a situation similar to this. My wife used to babysit for a divorced coworker of hers, so he could go out on dates. He knew I collected coins, so one night as payment for 3 hours babysitting he gave her a 1914 Barber half. His ex had encouraged him to take up a hobby (coins) to distract him while she went out to cheat on him. This 1914 was one of the coins she had given him back when.
What coin collector would ever "forget" to ask about his box of coins marked KEY dates. SCAM SCAM SCAM.
I know a lot of guys who have been through this. Some of them gave away everything they could to trusted friends and grown kids before the divorce was finaled. If items are given as gifts, they are no longer a possetion and can't be split up or sold. Then, if your friends are still trusting afterwards, you get all your stuff back. Sorry, doesn't work with houses, cars or boats....I know some who have tried those things as well. Guy~
this is the fifth or sixth time i've seen an auction like this on e-bay. every single time, the 'angry woman' pleads ignorance...but every single time, the key series/dates are featured prominently on the stack of coins. and every single time, the lot goes for crazy money. this time around, the 'angry woman' again pleads dumb. but she knows all about the 'red book', taking scope pictures of the D in 1916-d mercs, and terms like 'BU' and 'full head'... all the while misspelling words like 'braided', 'morgan', 'coming', 'judge', and 'what'. i'm pretty sure there are lots of angry women who've sold of their guy's coins...just none of them sell them on e-bay. (edit- original link doesn't seem to work anymore, here's the seller in question: http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZbad21girl)
Unless the other party has a competent lawyer, who convinces the judge that the "gifts" are sham; or that gifts of marital property were made without the spouses consent, which allows them to be invalidated and makes the giver liable to the other spouse for one half the value of anything that can't be recovered!.
Scam ~ I've seen this same approach w/baseball cards too. Ranks right up there with 'Dad/husband died, selling his coins... '
Got to go along with that. I've noticed an awful lot of grandparents passing away and leaving coins to unknowing relatives lately. This one about the divorse was on ebay about a year or so ago. I think it is pretty much the same wording too. At a local flea market there was a lady with a lot of sporting goods not long ago with a similar story. Sold a lot to people for high prices because they felt sorry for her. On her third so called divorse, no one bought from her so she went to other flea markets. You have to admit this fake story will get her a lot of sales from people that feel sorry for her.
But legally, that wouldn't happen would it ? If you get divorced, you don't have to give your wife half your clothes !