What would you have done?

Greetings,

About a year or so ago I wrote a few times about "shady dealers" and actually went on a "tear" about them. Going a little far on subjects at times is something I am guilty of.

I have, and I am sure most of you that have been in this hobby for a while have had the unpleasant experiance of being taken. Just when I think I have learned enough to stay out of the "serpents lair" wham, I get bit again.

Just in the last few months I bought a couple of gold coins (raw) on e-bay. One was a 1894 $5 liberty and the other a low mintage 1893 $2.50 lib. Both looked good with the pics. on the auction but as usual I wrote and asked if the coins had been cleaned. One said a definate NO! and the other (the $5) said as far as he knew it had not been altered in any way but it was part of a large estate purchase and what someone had done before him, he couldn't say. Well both came back from NGC as having been "improperly cleaned". Now both of these sellers sold coins on a regular basis and I think, should have known. When I got them in the mail the $2.50 looked good and should have come back 62, 61 minimum. The $5 I was a little suspect of. My point is should these people have known? being "coin dealers" I think so. Did they intentionaly sell "cleaned coins? I think so again. Does this make them dishonest? you be the judge.

Things like this go on all the time and even worse. I am sure most of you have had similar things, and worse happen to you. It has happened to me more times than I would care to admit and each time it takes a little away from this hobby I have grown to love. Does it upset me? of course. But looking back I really have no one to blame but myself. I just wish I did not feel as if the sellers found a gulible "sap" like myself to unload their rejects on. I don't know if good is the word but it makes them feel as if they got away with getting something or a little extra for something that they should not have gotten. Again, my fault for trusting that all in commerce are honest and upright. We all know that this is not the case.

We all have to listen the that little voice in the back of our mind and always try to do the right thing. I got $10 too much back in a bank drive thru check cashing transaction and when I counted the money, saw the mistake and brought it to the tellers attention. The little girl started to cry and shared that she was short the day before $50 and they were going to take it out of her pay. She went on to say that she was a new hire and was on probation and had this happened a second day in a row, she may have lost her job. I am in construction and I know many who, had this happened to them, they would have been bragging how they just took the bank for $10 and they would be buying the "case" after work. Little do they realize that "the bank" is not the party that lost out.

Here at this web site I have been refreshed to hear of those of you that received coins intended for someone else but did not keep them and sent them back. We're not talking a hundred dollars here but several thousand. Then others buying a coin, then the wrong coin was shipped to them, they called the seller who said "keep that coin and I will also send the correct one" I don't know about you all but those kinds of stories makes one feel like there is still hope for society and mankind. But on the flip side, you hear a story about one ordering a $1000+ coin and getting two and promptly sending both off for grading. That to me is the opposite of "refreshing".

But I have had to question myself of late because I don't know what I would have done in this case. This is supposedly a true story that happened to a guy who wrote into "Coin World" and had this happen: He went in to a local coin dealer, someone he had done business with prior, was going thru the cull/common bin box of circulated silver dollars and picked out several, seems to me it was a dozen or so. What he found in the coins was an 1893-S in fine 30 condition. He paid what I remember to be approx. $17 each for the coins and left. He came back the next day and asked this same dealer how much would he pay for this Morgan dollar? Not mentioning, mind you that it was one of the ones he had purchased the day before. But anyway I think $22-2300 was offered and this person declined and ended up selling the coin to another dealer for $3300 or so.

This guy used the proceeds to buy a used car for his family and had written in to Coin World "bragging" about his exploits. Well for the next issue or two this guy was lamblasted and called all kinds of names for not bringing this to his dealers attention. Then others came to his defence, noting that that dealer more than likely paid "scrap" price to some little old man or lady and it served him right for losing the coin for $17.

I have thought long and hard about this and I am still unsure as to what I would have done. One part of me would want to bring it to the dealers attention and another part says, this guy's a dealer and should have known that silver dollar was in that "common box" and that "thrill of the the hunt", that "find" so to speak came thru. Some of you may have read the "exchanges" that were flying back and forth to the "letters to the editor" One even had the nerve to say if the dealer found out about it he could sue for damages as in the money he should have got for the coin and be "made whole". I think or I should say, I know that if I was as close to that dealer as I am to mine here where I live, I would have shown him (the dealer) his mistake. Had I done that I am sure "Emory" (my friend/dealer) would have treated me right, as in some kind of reward for bringing it to his attention.

In summary, this was something that I read that did not appear "black and white". It wasn't a little bit of a "gray area" it was alot "gray" if you know what I mean. Bottom line, if a friend/dealer, let him know. If not a friend/dealer... I don't know? What does that make me? A dishonest collector? What say you? Happy Collecting! WKF