A Different Magnitude

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The gossip is flying around on the forums about the NYC coin bust. Most of it is as yet unconfirmed. An informant going under the obvious pseudonym "philmcraighin" reports (on the Forum discussion list January 13, 2012, 06:15:30 pm) that "It now turns out on good authority that Dr. Weiss had in his pocket a second decadrachm of Akragas when he was arrested !" (the original post has now been deleted for some reason from the list). A bit later on he supplied (Reply # 97, Jan 14th, at 07:15:49 pm) some more (as yet officially unconfirmed) information which at the moment it seems US coineys and their pals are refusing to accept:

In addition to the information out on the New York seizure three interpol arrest warrants have now been issued, one for an American dealer and two Italian dealers residing outside Italy. The case is far more serious than I had previously imagined and given the amounts of money paid grand larceny and conspiracy will be added to the charges. Not a good way to start the numismatic new year.

Meanwhile David Gill is doing his own teasing ("Coin talk on the sidewalk"):

"Word in Manhattan is that one of the seized coins may indeed be more interesting than first realized. The present proprietor and his partner will have to make some difficult decisions. More soon".

Yes, this case is indeed far more serious than the coineys preferred to believe at the beginning. This is not the end, either.

Vignette: The rare coin trade is no stranger to scandal, among others, readers may remember the 2006 Tom Noe case.