Henri Charriere

16 minutes ago, VKurtB said:

Yup.

As soon as the RICO act was passed l, 1970 (and the penalties for drug trafficking were exponentially increased) these guys should have seen the writing on the wall. Michael Franzese made it out (it didn't hurt to have a famous father) but unfortunately this was the only life they knew.  

43 minutes ago, RWB said:

Incredibly obvious counterfeit. The seller/offerer should be prosecuted.

43 minutes ago, RWB said:

Incredibly obvious counterfeit. The seller/offerer should be prosecuted.

Suspect:  You've got it all wrong officer!. I am working on a medieval suit of chain armor. I got the hole punch and links right here...

Officer:  C'mon along with me. You have a right to remain silent...

Hey wait, what's Mithradates doing... Just kidding! I am confident every light source expert on the Forum will agree these are very nice photos. I see 1622 in Arabic numbers on one and 1970 rendered in Roman numerals on another. Very interesting.  Good job!

33 minutes ago, GoldFinger1969 said:

QA, well-reasoned....but to me, if any member of Gotti's inner circle was a lawyer and he wanted them to represent him, that request should have been honored.

You may be right on what Cutler really wanted, I've never seen anything 

BTW...I walked right past Spark's Steakhouse about 15 minutes before where Paul Castellano got rubbed out.  I was working in mid-town Manhattan at the time and worked late that night.

I suspect the one person who knows the whole story is Bruce Mouw who was the FBI Supervisor of C-16, the squad assigned to investigate the illegal activities of the Gambino crime family in New York City.  Just think, the difference between being allowed to go about your business and being held at an undisclosed location as a material witness can sometimes be measured in just minutes. The lady of  Good Luck smiled on you that night.

I guess we will never know now.

4 hours ago, Turko said:

Thanks god I didn’t buy it 

But why?  It's never just one thing. What did the seller say? Did you state your concerns? I am very curious about the nature of deal-breakers. We can all learn from each other.

4 hours ago, Greenstang said:

Definitley a fake. The face is not even close to a genuine one.

Why not call it Variety 2?

11 minutes ago, GoldFinger1969 said:

What was ridiculous about the later trials was that Gotti could NOT have his lawyer of choice, Bruce Cutler.  I have never heard of the courts deciding who your lawyer can be.

I have two observations to make about that, both off the top of my head.  1.  Extensive wiretaps, electronic surveillance, confidential informants, etc. disclosed Cutler was more than just an attorney. Judge Glasser famously described him as "house counsel," based on information we, the public, are not privy to. [I believe the wiretap placed upstairs over the Ravenite Social Club, where Gotti reigned King picked up a negative comment directly from his lips, complaining, in substance, ...this isn't just the Gambino family. This is the Gotti, Gravano, Cutler, etc crime family.] 

2.  I am really going out on a limb here but my gut feeling is Bruce Cutler probably felt relieved (in spite of the courtroom antics and show for the press). Any one of the many charges Gotti was charged with carried life and he had a significant informant, his right-hand man, who had made a plea deal and was ready, able, and willing to testify against him. The jig was up and Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano blinked first and reaped the benefit: all told no more than 5 years for 19 murders. Cutler, as bombastic as ever, objected but deep down inside "quit" with government assistance, while he was still ahead, record intact. He was more than pleased.

VKurtB may correct me if I am wrong but unlike the juvenile courts, all trials in Federal Court are held publicly and jurors' names are made known. The jury in Gotti's trial was sequestered and the defendants' families, news reporters and courthouse employees occupied most of the seats in the "open" courtroom. (The only real head-scratcher to come out of the Eastern District in Brooklyn was the wholly unanticipated (and possibly unprecedented) extradition recently of Salvador Cienfuegos, described variously as Mexico's defense secretary who had been charged, much like el Chapo, with facilitating the transportation of narcotics for a violent drug cartel.)  The FBI, DEA, USA's and the entire federal judicial system was livid.

[My thanks to VKurtB for permitting me to speak.]

I guess it depends on your motive.  If it is to find out as much as possible about what's yours, why not?  As long as they've got nothing to do with King Farouk or Ratzie33 (private joke) go for it.

If it's to make a selling point, all the more reason why.  The television series Antique Roadshow and Pawn Stars wouldn't be complete without the obvious questions, including, "So how did you come by this?"

Have you managed to locate anyone knowledgeable about this series and its various appraised values? Surely a large, well-known, high profile and reputable auction house such as Heritage Auctions must have come across similar offerings at one time or another. I know you are still at the beginning of your inquiry.  I wish you all the best of luck on your endeavors!

This is neither here nor there but me feels -- the copper content and value of wheaties having long been spoken for -- all pennies minted hereinafter ought to be re-engraved 2-1/2 cents.  All in favor, say Aye!

There is an undeniably sensitive aspect to this. I suspect that the sale was contingent on confidentiality with the unverbalized understanding that any pertinent details, if determined, would not be released until all the principals involved were gone, out of simple decency and respect.

Perhaps not analogous but how would you feel as an author if a reviewer's copy of a book  you had written and inscribed with a personal message to a friend wound up downstairs in the Review Section of New York's Strand Book Store well ahead if its release date, unopened and unread (bought at a quarter of list price, and sold at half)? Unseemly, right?  Same thing.

31 minutes ago, VKurtB said:

QA, have you ever served on a federal case jury? Civil or criminal? Have you ever testified as a fact or expert witness in a federal court trial? Have you ever sat through an entire “charge” or instructions from a judge? Have you sat though one that lasted across two days? I have done all of the above. I have in state courts litigated about 20 cases, most pro se. Once I argued a case pro se before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, in the only subject matter where a pro se litigant CAN argue before the seven Justices, and wrote a brief FOR AN ATTORNEY in another similar one. I also taught hundreds of lawyers at a CLA course on that same subject matter, which only one law school in the country even offers a course on.

Judging by your resume and deeply-held beliefs, I think it safe to say that if you had sat on John J. Gotti's trial jury, the one in which a juror was compromised with a $60,000 bribe to throw the verdict, you likely would have been the first to be eliminated as a suspect. In my eyes, you can do no wrong and have more than the lares and penalties to back that up.  Or as the Philly underworld would put it:  "Dis guy here, Kurt, is a thoroughbred. Fuhgeddaboudit!  He's off-limits to everyone."  Said, of course, as a compliment!

3 hours ago, VKurtB said:

We know for certain the witness in question does the above; he does it right here on these pages, as do I here, but not while on the stand in court. 

[These are classic lines which will long be remembered in the annals of chatboard history.]😉

14 hours ago, zadok said:

jack webb didnt have time for any that poofy stuff......

True, but you, the Great Zadok, wielder of moot points, do.

I wish I could summon the courage to settle this once and for all but could we not say the same for George Metesky, the Shah of Iran, Pol Pot, el Chapo, Stalin in Russia, the Duvaliers in Haiti, Imelda Marcos in the Philippines, Pablo Escobar and the Sinaloa Cartel, Leona Helmsley, -- even Richard Nixon?

I am partial to the theory that water seeks it's own level.  The Good Book says all will be held to account. In comparison to Hutus vs Tutsis in Rwanda, the murders of 100,000 civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki -- acts all of which have their supporters, the death camps in Germany and Poland, Red Army retaliation,  the Rape of Nanking and the handiwork of William Calley in the premediatated massacre of half a million unarmed civilians in My Lai in '68? Does the name Phan Thi Kim Phuc, the Nalalm Girl ring a bell? How about the Letelier car bombing in Washington, D.C.? And what was Dan Mitrione doing in Uruguay? 

The ice break from Atarctica's Brunt Ice Shelf,  reportedly the size of Manhattan, has greater consequences for the world's inhabitants than whether any group of people stole a roll or bag of gold dollars from the Mint. Saddam Hussein had three tractor trailer loads of largely United States currency transferred i.e., stolen in broad daylight from the central Bank in Baghdad simply on his say so and the $500,000 in gold reserves expropropriated to the United States by the U.S. Marines from Haiti in 1915 has far greater consequences than some gold pieces which may or may not have been stolen.  As my favorite commentator, VKURTB once urged, proportion, people, proportion. I concur.

P.S.  Overriding question:  How does one profit from the "theft" of something he cannot talk about, cannot display and cannot sell openly? As the president's mouth piece once observed:  Nobody cares about his tax returns anymore. Bottom line, dirty or not, was Izzy found guilty of anything at all?  No further questions. 

(I better go; I hear the Mods outside the door...)

56 minutes ago, World Colonial said:

I only know the answer to two of the questions and with one, it's partly due to multiple choice.  Of the collections you listed, I only know of one and that's because I looked at the catalog before it was sold.  My suspicion is that most reading your poll have never heard of any of them.

You, sir, are remarkably prescient!  (In fact, the first and only time I heard the word sovereign pronounced was by Audrey Hepburn in "My Fair Lady.")

12 minutes ago, zadok said:

...just the facts, mam......

[madam = ma'am]  The Big Four: correct spelling, grammar, punctuation and good penmanship. 😉

1 hour ago, GoldFinger1969 said:

Mark, I think Kurt is sincere in his belief, just wrong.  He seems to have alot of hostility to the dealers of the day and their somewhat-borderline method of getting access to difficult coins.  Personally, I admire it.

Bowers tells of numerous Philly Mint employees going up to NYC and Boston (in addition to Philly) and trading the latest coins.  You can't tell me nobody wasn't looking to pick up some easy $$$ in The Depression by getting some of the 1933's in exchange for older coins.

Amazing that the same institutional arrogance and obsession exists 80 years later.  If they had this dedication on more important matters, they'd have tracked down that $5,000 in stolen 1928 Saints.

REALLY stolen.......

 

[I think I will just wait for the cable television version to come out, HOW IT REALLY HAPPENED.  When I was just a kid and first heard about the Titanic, I thought no problem. They'll refloat the thing and that'll be the end of that. Who really knew the ship broke in half and was beyond salvage? No one expects the missing and/or stolen Saints to be marching back in. Case closed.  Now, about those three Alcatraz escapees, any theories? Anyone think Dan B. Cooper is alive?

[I loved the PayPal angle but our colleague loves to get to the bottom of things.]

2 minutes ago, Quintus Arrius said:

Grams or grains?  And we are using an AVOIRDUPOIS weight scale right?  How about a profile shot of that edge?  Is there such a thing as a genuine piefort (sometimes spelled piedfort) Lincoln Cent? 

P.S.  All of my Lincolns come in at just under 2.00 mm.

Grams or grains?  And we are using an AVOIRDUPOIS weight scale right?  How about a profile shot of that edge?  Is there such a thing as a genuine piefort (sometimes spelled piedfort) Lincoln Cent? 

On 1/25/2021 at 2:58 PM, trenier said:

Recently purchased a 225th Anniversary Enhanced Uncirculated Coin Set and found what appears to be a lamination error.
What is the Universes opinion on grading, keeping in Mint packaging, and lastly value?

I believe the entire membership knows I have the utmost regard for VKurtB's observations even when off-hand, off-color or perhaps ill-advised and unhelpful, but the OP has specifically addressed his query to the Universe and how it feels about grading (to me, it remains as labelled) keeping it in original Mint packaging (I say, yes) and value beyond its issue price (made problematic by the distraction).  Surely there are on-lookers with both the experience and expertise who can offer insight into this matter. Where do my most ardent fans, my Army of Ignorers -- reduced by one to 21 by Idhair's recent reply to my comment on his thread -- stand on this?  Where are all the people who've encountered this type of intrusion before. And where, oh where is MAULEMALL?

On 2/28/2021 at 12:59 PM, Grant Gerlinger said:

I picked up this seated liberty quarter that I think is pretty cool.

It is much more than cool. I'd rather have a classic design in my pocket than a Washington who is already honored on the one-dollar bill. That is why I am pushing for revisiting classic designs such as this truly magnificent example in time for our nation's 250th anniversary, or sestercentennial.

Ask Alexa.

3 minutes ago, zadok said:

obviously not unique....prob not rare, poss scarce....reasonable to assume low hundreds??....there were (9) certified in that submission lot with identical error n grade.....2148532-001 thru 2148532-009 all same die crack same grade, possibly others in same submission with higher grade or lower grades, time consuming to search but doable, doubtful that ngc retains that info in a compiled data base but obviously it exists on a one coin cert number at a time basis......

Nice detective work! Gotta give you that!