Supplying Cabinet W

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Journalist Janon Fisher ('Prominent hand surgeon pleads guilty to selling phony ancient coins to undercover agent ') drops into the discussion about the Cabinet W. Fake Coins the name of the person who, according to his informants, Dr Weiss says he got these particular coins from.  At the time of writing however nobody else gives this information. According to Fisher, Weiss reportedly:

knew the coin was stolen because he told the federal agent that “there’s no paperwork, I know this is a fresh coin, this was dug up a few years ago,” according court records.[...] Herbert Kreindler, a Long Island coin dealer who Weiss says sold him the bad pennies, was not charged in the crime.

Herbert Kreindler, now there's a name to conjure with. He's a member of the staff of Gemini auctions, from whose webpage we read the following: 

His firm B & H Kreindler is a member of the International Association of Pressesional Numismatists (IAPN) and Mr. Kreindler is a fellow member of the American Numismatic Society [...]  He is also recognized as a leading auctioneer in the United States auction venue [...]  attends many major auction sales in Europe and the United States and also does appraisals of estates and numismatic donations to universities and charitable institutions.

Hmm. Well, when you try to follow a link from a google search to the ANS webpage  about one of those donations, the link seems to be broken (familiar pattern?). He is associated with Herakles Numismatics, he is a well-cited author on "Biblical coins", "Heritage Auctions" (of Tarby fame) in their magazine refer to him as a "Judean numismatist".    

So did Herbert Kreindler really sell these coins to Weiss? Under what conditions? Those who have been following the coin market more thoroughly than I might be able to tell us whether these two coins were ever on open offer, or whether they were bought and sold by some under-the-counter deal.  Was it Kreindler who said that the coins were freshly dug-up, the source of the reported statement: “there’s no paperwork, I know this is a fresh coin, this was dug up a few years ago”? Or was this Weiss's own interpolation? If we now know that the coin was a fake, and it was sold by Mr Kreindler to Dr Weiss, where did Kreindler believe it had come from? Why did he not check? As a member of the IAPN (which apparently has a code of ethics), Kreindler would be obliged to check more than that.

 Every member of the IAPN agrees to abide by the Association's Code of Ethics which includes the following statement:

“[...] members pledge to conduct themselves as follows:

To guarantee that good title accompanies all items sold, and never knowingly to deal in any numismatic item that has been illegally removed from an official excavation site or stolen from a public or private collection.

To describe numismatic items accurately, and to refrain from any misrepresentation of origin, date, condition, provenance, pedigree, or value.”

Now there is a lot missing from this story. First of all the accounts of the court case refer to three coins, while the earlier reports detail only two seized:
1) a 4th century BC silver tetradrachm from Katane, lot 1009; Weiss said he had bought the coin in 2001 for $250,000 and hoped to sell if for $350,000, the complaint says, and that he knew it had been freshly excavated at the time he bought it. This was the only coin mentioned in the original complaint (undated but publicised by Chasing Aphrodite on Jan 11th 2012).
2) According to Coin World, a second coin was seized: a 4th century BC silver decadrachm from Akragas. This is not mentioned on the <11th January complaint.

So when did  the third coin get added, and in what circumstances?

Indeed, who put DA investigator John Freck up to Dr Weiss and the initial two coins in the first place? The investigation was initiated by federal agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but we have no information what led them to Dr Weiss.



Vignette: The two coins known to have been seized Jan 3rd 2012 (photo from Coin News) .