Is it the Fear of Lawsuits That Keeps Coin Dealers From Exposing Coin Doctors??

[dragon]

Or is it just possibly that so many big name and well respected dealers have financial 'ties' with them, and can't expose them without risk of exposing themselves??

 

I just said in another thread across the street that if a few of the really BIGTIME coin docs were ever to 'sing', that it could possibly turn into an Enron or Worldcom type fiasco............any thoughts??

 

 

 

dragon

 

PS: I am only presenting a hypothetical idea here and speculation, nothing more.

[truthteller]

This is a big issue, probably the biggest and most comprehensive that it would take a book to properly address the issue. Here's my opinion. The numismatic community is very small from a dealers point of view. It controls billions of dollars in value, but is not regulated, no school of professionalism is needed, there are no standards for dealers other than FTC rules of investments, there are few guidelines, little recourse for fraud, and, bottom line, lots of money to be made. Many dealers have known each other for years, are friends and are fearful of being alienated or labeled as whistleblowers. The network is very deep and money changes hands frequently. Many dealers will do a deal on a handshake, since it is easily discerned that if one dealer screws another, then that dealer may and will be ostracized from the community, essentially destroying the coin career or access to good deals. Others dealers simple make money off the collector and could care less about professionalism. The only fear of lawsuits by a dealer is going to be against investors or collectors, since the collecting community is NOT tightly knit. If a major lawsuit is brought by one major dealer against another, due to coin doctoring, many, many dealers with be exposed publicly. One west coast dealer now caters to wall street clientle. If it were exposed that the investment coins they sell are doctored, that is millions of potential dollar sale gone. As more money comes into the numismatic community, the effort to keep 'dirty laundry' secret is much more profound. I feel the numismatic community will do nothing in the future to stop this. In addition, many of the so called reforms will slowly wither away. My .

 

TRUTH

[TomB]

This is an excellent hypothetical that you have given. Truth has touched upon many valid points but has left one out and that is being able to prove who did what and when. In other words, it's one thing to know it and another to be willing and able to prove it. Overall, I think Truth's response covers the vast majority of the dealer-to-dealer experiences.