Weekly News In Brief July 14
Park Avenue Numismatics has launched a new online encyclopaedia for collectors of rare and notable coins everywhere.
Starting with US coins, the service allows a user to click on the coin that he or she believes they have, or would like to purchase, from a pick list. This will then bring up a page with colour pictures of the coin, and a detailed description.
As the popularity of the service grows, Park Avenue plan to extend beyond US coins to cater to a growing community of users.
Gold Chocolate Pennies Lead To Larceny
A 30-year old woman has been arrested in Lincoln, USA in connection with a scam that she tried to perpetrate on an unsuspecting coin dealer.
Back in April, Stacy Sellner is alleged to have enticed a 65-year old coin dealer to a clandestine meeting to discuss the possible sale of some gold coins. The meeting, to which the dealer readily agreed, took place in a petrol station car park, where Ms. Sellner tried to sell the dealer a number of fake gold coins. So fake, in fact, that they were made of chocolate!
Once the dealer had shown Ms. Sellner and her accomplice the money, she sprayed him with pepper spray and attempted to rob him. Fortunately, he was able to make his escape with his money intact.
She was finally arrested earlier this week, and accused of theft by deception and second-degree assault.
Throwing A ‘Worthless’ Coin Costs Hundreds
Over in Essex, England, a teenager has discovered that throwing money really does cost.
On 8th August the 17 year old was charged with causing criminal damage for throwing a £1 coin at a bus door, when the bus had started pulling away and he had been just too late to catch it.
Appearing before the judge in court at Chelmsford, the boy was given a six-month referral notice and ordered to pay a fine before he left court.
The fine of £335 really does prove that throwing money at a lost cause never pays.
Sales Patter And Greed Point Way To Jail
Beware sales talk is the moral of this story. In the USA, a man was sentenced to three years jail after being convicted of selling coins to a Delaware quadriplegic at a hugely inflated price in 2008.
Marcus Meehan had gained the trust of the disabled senior citizen, who could only communicate with the aid of a computer, before selling him a quantity of coins that was only worth about 15% of what the victim of his scam paid him.
Meehan said that he had been taught how to lie over the phone, and manipulate a client, in order to gain the client’s trust. He was sentenced to three years in jail, and ordered to repay the victim $200,000.
Oh, and a word of warning: Meehan told a pre-sentence investigator that he would like to get back into the coin business!
What Goes Around, Comes Around
Many children play with coins when they’re young, plotting either how to accumulate more or how to spend what they have. Some will engrave their coins, or even make jewellery from them. Then there are those that paint them with nail varnish.
This is exactly what Tim Kirk did when he was twelve, bored, and at a loss what to do with his empty time. He painted his initials on a quarter, using his mother’s red nail varnish. ‘T’ on one side, and ‘K’ on the other. Then he went to the local store and spent his pocket money on sweets.
That was twenty five years ago, at a log cabin in Idaho where he was on holiday with his family. After spending the money and consuming his candy hoard, he forgot all about the painted quarter – until recently, when it turned up again.
Emptying his pockets into a change jar he keeps at home, he discovered the coin that bought back those childhood memories. A remarkable feat, considering the fluidity of money, and one that proves that, if you wait long enough, what goes around comes around.
