The scenario for this week's Coin Dealer Ethics question was originally published in Numismatic News in mid-January. Ever since then, the scenario has been debated in the News' Letters to the Editor section virtually every week, with many weeks having several letters about this interesting situation. I thought that my readers might enjoy discussing it, too, since it seems to resonate with lots of people. You can read the entire original article about the overlooked 1893-S Morgan Dollar, but I'll distill the essential facts, as I see them, here.
In 2005, Dave Lembke bought a few small piles of Morgan Dollars from his local coin dealer for $7 to $9 each, a price that was just a little over the silver value of the coins at the time. He took the Morgans home and stashed them in his safe until he had time to check them for VAMs. (VAMs are popular Morgan Dollar die varieties.) On December 24, 2005, Dave had some time to look at the Morgans, and was amazed to discover that one of them was a rare and valuable 1893-S.
He took the coin to the dealer he bought it from for $7, asking the dealer how much he would pay for it. In Dave's account, he admits that he didn't want to tell the dealer that the coin had been sold by him for $7, because he didn't want to make the dealer "hang himself." The dealer offered $2,100 for the 1893-S Morgan if it was certified as being genuine.
Dave sent the coin in for grading, and it came back graded "VF Details Net F-15" (which means the coin had some surface damage that prevented it from attaining a full, unqualified VF grade, in this case a minor surface scratch and some edge dings.) The important news was that the rare 1893-S Morgan Dollar was genuine.
Although he held onto the coin for awhile, Dave eventually sold it to buy his wife a better car. He took it to a second coin dealer to get another offer, and the dealer agreed to pay Dave $3,150 for the coin, which Dave accepted.
The bottom line is that Dave turned a $7 investment into a $3,150 sale, primarily because the dealer who sold the coin had overlooked it when he sold it.
Numismatic News readers have brought up a number of points while discussing this little adventure. Some readers took Dave to task for not being honest with the first dealer. They thought he should have taken the coin back and admitted that it was in the batch, since no dealer in his right mind would have sold an 1893-S Morgan for $7. Other readers were more annoyed at Dave for not wanting to tell the dealer where he got the coin, considering this to be a form of lying. At least one person thought it was wrong to offer the coin for sale back to the same dealer he got it from under these circumstances.
Taking the other side of things, a couple of readers felt that Dave had done nothing wrong at all; the dealer should have known what he was selling. Some readers even thought the first dealer was a crook, offering more than $1,000 less than others would pay for the coin, so he deserved what he got by selling the $7 Morgan.
Interestingly, among the Numismatic News readers who took the time to write a Letter to the Editor, most of them believed that Dave was in the wrong for one reason or another.
What do you think? Should Dave have fessed up and returned the coin? Or was it the dealer's loss for not checking his junk silver more carefully before selling it? Share your comments below, and next week I'll do a follow-up column quoting some of the more interesting reader responses.
Don't miss the follow-up to the 1893-S Morgan Dollar ethics question.
Comments
If the story is correct as stated, then the collector did nothing wrong by buying the coin at the dealer’s asked price. It is the dealer’s own fault for being lazy and not checking the coins before selling them.
TD (dealer)
If the story is accurate, I agree that the collector did nothing wrong: The dealer set his asking price, the collector agreed, and the sale was made. The dealer didn’t ask when the collector brought it back where he bought it nor for how much, so saying that the collector lied is simply not accurate. I think both the buyer and the seller should educate themselves on the transaction before making it, and they should treat sales as final unless returned in original condition for a good reason.
And I’m saying this as someone who’s bought 2 different coins from a dealer only to later find out that they were not as they were represented (BU representation, AU in actuality) making their value significantly less than I paid. But I didn’t go crying back to the dealer since I should have educated myself. I simply will never be buying from him again.
About six months ago, I took a Dansco album U.S Type set in to several local dealers to raise some cash. I had put the set together over about two years, with nice quality circulated examples. Every coin had been broken out of a problem-free slab, and most of the silver had colorful or original toning.
Since I had taken a few years off from coins, and do 99% of my purchases at auctions or with nationally recognized dealers, none of the local dealers recognized me, although I go to a show or two a year. I did not offer that I knew the approximate value of the set, just that I had put the set together and knew that any coin would slab if desired.
After several dealers had a chance to look at the set, best offer I got was about 60% of wholesale price guides. And that was from the most reputable dealer in the area.
The dealer is responsible for knowing and pricing his inventory accordingly. Readers tend to side with the dealer and skewer the collector, but what if the tables were reversed? If a dealer discovered after a couple of months that they accidently paid bullion prices for a rare coin they overlooked when buying a bulk lot, would they hunt down the seller and make the seller whole?
Good Dave (o:
I think it is OK and the thing to do. Go! Dave.
I went to a dealer last week and he offered me a Box of 40 Rolls of Lincoln cents (1959-1973) just 3 of some an 0 of others I look at a few roles and Paid him $80.00 for them.
I took them home and after 4 Hrs I found some real winners. So should I tack them back??? No If I make money of what A dealer sold me he knows I will be back. If the dealer doesn’t want to go and take the time to do his job and he dumps gold coins in a $2.00 box It is on him.
If I brought in a lot of coins you think the dealer and ask for $1,000 and he says OK, is he going to say Whoops I owe you $2,000 more. No he is gong to say “Do you have more.”
Poco Zocko
I don’t have much experience with coin dealers, but I have been reading some of the articles on this site about when you just bring in a stack of coins to dealer. They will just pay you a percentage over the surface value and then sort any rare or valuable coins out later if there are any. It seems that this was just a reverse case of this in which the buyer bought the stack of coins for slightly over their value and it turned up that they had a valuable coin.
david made a good deal and had no obligation legally or morally to either inform or compensate the dealer for a deal made in good faith.good going david sharp eye.
While I can effectively argue either side of this case, as everyone else seems to have already done, the FACT still remains that most states have laws on the books, regarding obvious mistakes concerning sold items. In short, the dealer CAN sue for the return of that 1893-S Morgan and would PROBABLY win, IF he can show that it had been included in that lot BY ERROR. The case becomes even clearer had it been sold by an employee, rather than the dealer theirself. I personally have seen MANY dealers rip folks off, and this one seems to be one of those. He did, afer all, offer a GRAND less than the other dealer and probably bought the coin for $5 or $6 to begin with. Yet, as I said peviously, one can easily fault both buyers and sellers for not doing their homework. My personal opinion is that ALL dealers should be 100% honest with ALL buyers, as they are supposed to be ambassadors of the hobby. Still, my opinion–and nobody else’s matters here–only the judge’s.
Wow! I really enjoy reading all your articles on Coin Dealer Ethics, Susan!
In my own opinion, I don’t think there’s any one correct answer: either the dealer was “wrong” or the buyer was “wrong”. (Who comes out of the door: the Lady or the Tiger?)
However, I believe that HONESTY will always win out in the long run. If Dave had a good working relationship with his local coin dealer, then perhaps he should have brought the mistake to the dealer’s attention. The dealer, if he were also honest, should have rewarded Dave for “finding” the “mistake” that the dealer originally made.
If everyone in the world “did the right thing” all the time, there wouldn’t be any problems, right? *lol*
All best, JerseyJoe
I thought I would introduce another consideration which is the relationship betweent the collector and the dealer. If a collector had a long-time business relationship with the dealer and if the dealer had proven to be a person of integrity and fairness, then I think the collector/customer could feel some obligation to be fair with the dealer. This is a very subjective scenario, but I do think this might resonate with some long time collectors.
Let’s say that Dave did give it back to the dealer (water under the bridge at this point). Who sold the coin to the dealer in the first place??? Shouldn’t that individual also be compensated by the dealer for “inadvertently” selling a rare coin to the dealer? And where does it stop???
While the laws may allow a person to recover some compensation for mistakenly selling something for much less that it is worth, the dealer would be considered an “expert” and should have known what he/she was doing in the first place. It is apparent that the dealer never took the time to examine the coins which they sold a customer (due diligence). If the person who made the mistake was not a so-called “expert,” then I would say that that person would have a leg to stand on. In this case, I hope the lazy dealer learned his/her lesson.
What, are we now our brothers keeper in this hobby? Anyone who professes to be a “dealer” and who is so careless as to not know what he is selling deserves what he gets. Dave bought in bulk and later discovered a rare specimen. Good for him!!
I have to agree with John and Joe. If the dealer inadvertently included a coin for which he had paid several thousand dollars in a batch of low grade Morgans, then there might be a case here, but in the absence of evidence to the contrary I am guessing that he paid an old lady $3 for the coin that he sold for $7. Dave created the value by searching through the stack and finding the gold nugget among the ore.
Dave paid for exactly what he got: a bunch of random date low grade Morgan dollars.
Part of the attraction in buying bulk coins is the potential for just such a jackpot.
The only thing David did wrong here was go back to the dealer and try and sell it to him. I believe Dave was intentionly throwing his good luck in the dealers face.
I also bought a coin at my local dealers and sold it on ebay for a nice profit as I didn’t collect that type but I knew the value, I also didn’t go back and tell the dealer.”Hey boy! did I make a profit on that coin you sold me” the dealer set his price and sold it for what he thought it was, junk silver.
We all look for deals in coin shops and if we get one great but what happens if we see the same coin going for less on ebay do we go back to the dealer and demand our money back. Of course not we live and learn. Charlie
The important question here is: Was selling the coin to Dave a mistake? Many seem to be assuming that just because a coin has significant value, that by itself is evidence that a mistake was made. If the dealer never looked at the coin individually, that is the dealer purchased a lot of seemingly low value coins and turned them around for a profit without ever examining them, then no “mistake” was ever made (at least in any legal sense). This is a common practice and one that we all hoped to benefit from as youngsters at the coin shop while going through the bins of well circulated coins that the dealer did not bother to examine one by one. They came in lots and they went out in lots and that is that. Just because Dave and the dealer had a long relationship doesn’t mean he is under any obligation to share any gems discovered in coin lots purchased. Did the invoice list individual coins, or did it simply say “23 Morgans @ $7.00, 17 Morgans @ $8.00, 13 Morgans @ $9.00″ and leave it at that. Unless the coins were itemized, or the dealer can prove that he was aware of the coin’s existence prior to the sale (which doesn’t seem likely or he would have asked his long time customer if he had ever seen the “missing” coin), I see no reason why Dave should not have full rights to all profits he reaped.
Clair
A major reason many people get involved in and excited about coin collecting is the thrill of the hunt. There is nothing as satisfying as purchasing a coin for much less than it is worth because YOU did your homework and the seller did not. Dave had every right to keep the coin he purchased and to sell it for what it was worth.
Bought an eight feather Morgan coin from Preferred Customer Club (First Federal, LLC). We mailed it to NGC Grading and it came back in a body bag with the notation improperly cleaned. We contacted the folks at Preferred to ask if they would take the coin back. We were told that they would call us back on that. Ofcourse no call back. We bought the coin in good faith in which case I think they should have given us another coin in return for theirs. It is amazing to me that a dealer will lose a good customer over a $95.00 coin. To make a long story shorter Dave did absolutely nothing wrong in keeping the coin he found in the junk coins. If it had been the other way you think the dealer would have returned it to him? NOT!!!! Catharina.
Give me a break! I can’t even believe that David’s ethics are in question here. It’s not like he found a bank bag laying in the bushes!
Now finding the bank bag would be a good test of conscience (for me at least) but finding a rare gem in a pile of junk coins bought from a dealer…geez! Don’t we all live for that!?!?!?
Note to dealer…don’t be so careless.
Well, among collectors who have been around for many years, who among you have NOT cherry picked some dealers “leavings” and found a gem?
Some years ago I was assembling a set of XF/AU Indian cents and at a major show asked different dealers about their stock of this condition. One dealer stated he had just purchased over 100 such coins and offered me my choice at 10% over his buy price. I selected 6 coins and paid his price. I later had the group graded and placed in slabs by one of the firms eBay allows – with the following result – 1 @ MS64, 2 @ MS62 (including an 1864L), 1 @ AU58, 1@ AU55 and the last @ AU50. So, should I return to a dealer who obviously bought LOW from a collector, who looked over the coins I selected and gave me a price, telling him the coins were under-graded? No, he had fair opportunity and I truly believe both he and I made out well.
Dave profited from his effort and time. The dealer lost out by not being careful.I believe Dave was right. I think it would have been wrong for him to return to the dealer and gloat over his find. More power to Dave.
Why is this even an issue? It’s called Cherrypicking, isn’t it? If the dealer doesn’t do his homework, it’s not Dave’s fault. If this is wrong, then the publishers of Cherrypickers had better stop printing and constantly updating their books.
Don’t tell me that Ken Potter or any of our other notable variety experts tell every dealer everytime they cherrypick something from the dealer’s inventory.
Knowledge is the key word here and oftentimes so is luck. Dave was purchasing these coins to look for VAM’s, meaning he has some knowledge to realize that there could be something valuable. Instead, he got lucky and found a “normal” rarity, the 1893-S.
My opinion is “Congrats Dave” and keep on searching.
Where is the problem? Both sides profited from the transaction. (At least, there is an assumption that the dealer made a small profit.)
Ethics has absolutely nothing to do with which side of the counter one happens to be standing.
My wife and I have been in the antiques business,(specializing in jewelry) for almost 30 years and we have been involved in this type of situation from both sides.
The first one involved a Cameo from Venice in 15 Kt. gold with carved Carnelian, signature, date (1852) and city. We paid ten dollars for it as add on from a customer whom we bought a couple of thousand dollars worth of jewelry that belonged to a distant relative and the person wanted to get rid of the non Civil War memorabilia. I though tit might be genuine, but the owner thought it was fake and was happy to get paid for “junk.” We sold it at the Sotheby’s initial online auction for $850.00 and it was appraised at $3500.00 to $6500.00 based on researching the artist. That was when Cameo style was out of vogue.
The second item was a Cal Ripken box of memorabilia that was at an auction. There were two boxes of the “same” items, except one had an autographed Upper Deck card and the other had an unsigned card. The signed card was between the pages from a game program from when he broke the consecutive games played record and the unsigned was on top. We lost the bid but the other buyer only wanted the other box with the unsigned card. The auctioneer asked if I wanted the box for my bid ($75.00), the winner payed $100.00, I took it and was ecstatic. My wife was mad as I hadn’t told her about the card. The owners of a sale location that we frequented wanted some Ripken stuff for a grandson’s birthday and bought everything except the card for $300.00. I turned down $600.00 for the lot without the card from a card shop owner. We sold him the card for $300.00 and he sold it to a client for $500.00 while I was there.
The point of this story is if a person wants to be in a business where knowledge is power then due diligence is paramount.
ALSO LUCK HELPS.
My gut reaction is to take the coin without saying a word. I do wonder if I should take into account the experience of the Dealer. I’d feel pretty low taking advantage of someone with no experience. It certainly would be a tough lesson, though. Maybe I would sell the coin back…
Hello Dave paid for the coin, therefor it is his. He has no obligation to tell anyone anything. The dealer was to careless to check his coins. Dave congrats on the super great buy.
There is no Judge that would rule in favor of returning the ooin from the Buyer to the Dealer. If the Judge ruled on returning the coin, then the coin must also be returned to the Little Old Lady whom originally sold it for $3.00 to this dealer. Therefore, if the Buyer is ordered to return the coin to the Dealer, then the Dealer is also obligated to return the coin to the Little Old Lady whom originally was swindled for selling the coin for $3.00
Where does it stop?
The correct answer in this situation is for the Buyer to keep the coin that he purchased for $7.00 from the Dealer. The Buyer is then entitled to his $3,000.00 profit just as the Dealer was entitled to his profit on $7.00 and the Little Old Lady is entitled to her agreed upon price of $3.00, which she probably bought many, many years ago for the original face value of $1.00
From what I understand (I’m not a lawyer) legally there is a case here against the buyer. Ethically, there was neither deception nor intent to defraud. A dealer chooses not to inspect each and every coin closely, and the buyer benefitted from his bad choice. If the buyer returned the coin to the dealer, would the dealer give the person who originally sold it to him more money? Does the dealer even know who originally sold it to him?
If you’re going to cherrypick then you should at least follow the Cherrypicking Etiquette and Techniques.
At the last coin show I picked two 1983-P Washington quarters out of a dealer’s Junk bin for 50 cents each. It looked like he bought somebody’s quarter collection that was housed in 2×2 cardboard holders, pulled the silver quarters and dumped all the clad quarters into the junk bin. Of the two quarters, one looks like it would grade MS-63 ($30) and the other was even better, maybe MS-65 ($65) or even MS-66 ($475). I bought a total of $15.00 worth of coins from the junk bin. He looked at each coin, totaled them up and I paid him. He looked at each individual coin before he sold it to me. If it was a mistake he had his opportunity to catch it. He did not. He thanked me, I was happy, he was happy, no harm, no foul.
The question is from whom the dealer obtained the coin and what did he pay for it. My feeling is if he paid two thousand he would have the coin displayed separately. He probably got it in a lot and did not check each coin accurately. The real loser is the person who sold the coin to the dealer. The dealer lost out for not checking the coins thoroughy. And Dave is the winner.
OK consider this. I live in Texas and here if Wal-Mart has something marked with a sign for $3.89 and you take it to the registar and it rings up $89.56 they still have to give it to you for the lower price, it is the law.
When I was 13 I bought a 1914D wheat from a dealer at a store. I had bought alot of coins from him in the past. I told him I was moving and needed the coin to help complete the set. 3 years later I sold the set and found out the 14 D was a fake. I did not go back to the dealer I just ate it.
A year ago I bought 100 rolls of BU memorials off of eBay. When I got them there was 7 rolls of BU 55Ss. No, I did not give them back or tell the seller.
You see all the time on eBay where someone buys a roll of wheats and gets a valuable coin in it….1 09S VDB for instance. Should they give it back.
Just my opinion, Dave did good.
If the dealer bought the coin as junk silver and then discovered that it was worth a lot more, would he have gone back and paid additional to the seller? Probably not. “Let the buyer beware” is what free market capitalism is all about. At least it was until people decided the government should protect them from everything. But with that protection, comes control and loss of freedom.
He purchased the coins from the coin shop, he did not rent them. Therefore, he is the owner and entitled to whatever gain would be realized from their resale. If anyone here purchased a roll of 1955 cents for $50 at their local coin shop, opened the roll and found it was 100% brilliant uncirculated DDO #1, would they return it or offer more money to the dealer? I might take him to lunch, but would never rub his face in my discovery.
I think he was right,the dealer of any product should check it out beforee it was sent out,it could have just as easily been a fake,sothe buyer was taking a chabce also. Unfortunately people get ripped off everyday,i cannot afford to send some wheatback pennies in that i know are at least ms-65,so i wont sell them,but i checked them out,this dealer did not,so whose fault is it for not checking there own inventory?
for Dave.
Do unto others (even dealers!) as you would like them to do unto you.
Buyer Beware – Seller be More Aware – Dealer – be Most Aware, you are the bench marki.
Buyer was not dishonest at purchase, Dealer was low balling his buying price!
As a lot of us are not youngsters here in this field, I remember my Gramps saying back in the day “A deal is a deal”. Last year I bought an error coin on ebay. I had the coin certified and graded. I paid $14.00 for the coin. I sold the coin for $985.00 to a dealer. I sent the Seller a check for $400.00 and told him about the whole deal. I also explained to him why I did it and that if he was going to be in this business he should educate himself. I still made a good chunk of change and the seller sent me several other errors in the mail later. Right or wrong, deal or no deal, whatever, this would be in my opinion a personal matter. Just my opinion.
I find it hard to believe that if the situation were reversed that the dealer would try to contact a seller who inadvertedly sold him the rare coin. He’d probably keep it and revel in his profits.
dealers are a pesky lot. think of all the other people that they have “taken” over time. all the dealers I know could buy and sell me many times over, so I think this should teach the dealer in question a lesson. what goes around comes around. I’m not a dealer, but I do a lot of buying and selling and I always go by the grey sheet. people should know what they have before they sell it. cut and dry.
for a dealer to make this mistake is just dumb. so the way I see it, the dealer is the one making the mistake. take it back to the guy who sold it to you?! come on, give me a break! he would have just peddaled it off to some other unknowing sucker and made more than he offered to buy it back. and for the people who feel sorry for the dealer, you’re probably dealers yourselves.
to the cat that bought the ’93s-good for you. you didn’t get over on the dealer, he got over on himslef and it sounds like you did what needed to be done. especially after you had them stashed away for a period of time. that alone makes this a legitimate deal.
maybe one day I can get that lucky!
There’s a difference between buying something like that from a professional dealer or a lay-person. If Dave had bought the coins from a little old lady who knew nothing about coins, but only sold them because she needed the money for living expenses, then the right thing to do would be to return the coin – or the cash – to the little old lady.
The dealer, on the other hand, as a professional, should have known better. Dave has no obligation to return the coin to the dealer pointing out his oversight. Moreover, one could probably assume that the dealer didn’t receive the coin as a rare 1893-S Morgan either, but rather in the same way he sold it – in bulk from another party for generic silver value. The dealer probably paid $3 or $4, and then turned around and sold them at a profit. If Dave is obligated to return the coin to the dealer, then the dealer, if held to the same standard, should subsequently be obligated to return the coin to the person from whom he received it……And on it goes.
Returning such a coin to someone who more closely resembles that little old lady I described would provide returns of good-will that greatly exceed the dollar value of the coin. Returning it to the dealer, however, would only paint Dave a fool.
I am new to the world of “COINS” and have enjoyed some of the excitment and suprise of the possability of coming across “THE COIN, that ONE in a MILLION. These things happen, and to me “another mans JUNK is another mans TREASURE” never rang more true. I think this man must deal with his own issues, “Morally and Ethicly”………………………
Dave did nothing wrong. I amaze myself by continuing to collect coins after what I have received from dealers and this is not by paying a price that is too good to be true but fair market value and still receive coins that are not even their metal value if the coin has a real metal value. No sympathy for dealers from me, when you even stand up for yourself the normal response I have received from these advertisers in the trade magazines is to be insulted and try to ignore and roll over you. In the last couple of years I tried to reinvigorate my passion for collecting coins from my youth to the tune of around $30,000.00, these first class dealers have done just about all they could do to extinquish this passion. No more dealers or their line about selling ungraded coins, they are destroying what they profess to desire to engage in. You reap what you sow. John B.
What Dave did was ok. We all look for that “deal”, and as someone said ,”the dealer should of known what he was selling”.
Dave did the right thing,after all the dealer’s that i deal with are a bunch of crooks anyway!
I see nothing wrong with Dave’s handling of the transaction. Business is Business. The dealer didn’t lose it, he’s an adult of sound mind I assume and entered into a legitimate business transaction. However, if it bothers your conscious sell it back to him for 7 bucks. It’s just money and you can’t take it with you when you die.
I agree that Dave is 100 percent correct in this situation because he purchased the coins from a dealer for a mutually agreed price. (Offer. Acceptance. Consideration.)
Years ago at a coin show I saw several Lincoln cents in a dealer’s display case, each labeled as “off center” mint errors and priced at $5 each. But one obviously to me was more than that, and I bought it for five bucks. It was a cent struck on a dime planchet, worth about $150 at the time. When I purchased it from the dealer — for $5 — I restrained myself from asking, “Can you do any better on the price….”
Another time at a coin show I found a 1787 Connecticut copper in a dealer’s $2 “junk box.” He must have thought it was a foreign coin because the mottos on Connecticuts are in Latin. It was worth about $30 at the time I bought it.
I agree with those who say he did nothing wrong. When you are dealing with coins, you have to be committed to checking EVERY coin or take the risk of unexpectedly selling something of great value. In dealing with coins, scanning the pile is NEVER a good thing. The responsibility of checking the coins falls on the dealer, not the buyer. The choice of kindness falls on each of them. Had the buyer brought the coin back and revealed everything, the seller would also have had the choice of saying, “Wow. I made a huge mistake. You bought it with a clear conscious. You profited off my mistake. My bad; your good.” The integrity of the sale prevails.
Or the seller had the choice of saying, “Wow. Thanks! Here’s your $7.” Kindness prevails.
On the other hand… the first guy sold the
coin unknowingly; that’s considered a mistake. The second guy could have sold it back knowingly. That’s either a guy with a strong conscious or stupidity. -Linda
OK, this is off-topic but I decided to post here because this thread is active. The mint, in its FAQ section claims that it is producing gold, silver, & platinum coins. Unfortunately, since the mint does not date its FAQs and routinely works them out of order, we don’t know when they last updated this one.
Question
Is the United States Mint out of gold, silver and platinum coins?
Answer
The United States Mint is not out of collectible versions of its gold, silver and platinum coins. Proof and uncirculated versions of the American Eagle Gold Coins, American Eagle Platinum Coins, American Buffalo Gold Coins, as well as the American Eagle Uncirculated Silver Dollar, are still available directly from the United States Mint. These coins are sold at a premium over their investment-grade counterparts because of their special production and packaging.
The bullion investment versions of the American Eagle Silver Dollar and American Eagle 1 oz. Gold Coin are currently being allocated to Authorized Purchasers (a network of precious metal coin retailers) because we are unable to obtain sufficient blanks to meet the unprecedented demand for these coins. Investment versions of American Eagle fractional (1/2 ounce, ¼ ounce. and 1/10 ounce) Gold Coins, American Eagle Platinum Coins, and American Buffalo Gold Coins are not currently available.
——————————————
The mint really needs to start putting dates on their FAQs and stop using numbers out of order, and stop going back to older FAQs and changing the text to match their current dogma. It might also help if they would be truthful.
Clair
I’m guessing it was in with the junk silver because the dealer got it mixed in with junk silver and never knew what he had bought. Anyone who believes the dealer would go back an make good to whomever he bought it from is kidding himself. If I’ve ever accidently sold a valuable coin as junk silver to a dealer, I’m not holding my breath for the day that I get a call from that dealer saying he wants to give me an extra $2000. So great find Dave!
As of yet, i have made no bulk purchases of baged silver. The thought has crossed my mind on many occassions. When i see grab bags of silver coinage selling in bulk, i assume the selles are aware of what they are doing, and the risk involved. So, i’m wondering if i have to feel guilty if and when i decide to buy silver in bulk just to peruse the stock i purchase looking for the needle in the hay stack. In ethics, i don’t see bulk sales as a moral delema for the buyer. Or no one would sell in bulk but check the bags them selves to cherry pick out the best coins for them, then sell off the junk. Which in it self is kind of unfair to the buyer, if the best stuff has been picked clean. That’s an opinion.
coiny
I’m with Tom. The dealer should have taken the time to look through the dollars. It’s not like the coin was priced at $3000 and got mixed in with junk silver. I’m sure in 1980 at least a few valuable coins were melted in everyone’s rush to cash in on the silver boom.
Are you kidding me, anybody that thinks that Dave did anything unethical should start seeing a shrink.
Does anybody really think that dealers would give a second thought to making too much money off of them if the situation were reversed… HELL NO!!! That’s all just part of the game.
Susan you said it yourself; “The bottom line is that Dave turned a $7 investment into a $3,150 sale, primarily because the dealer who sold the coin had overlooked it when he sold it.” END OF STORY!!!
Mike
Nobody forced the dealer to sell the coin to Dave for $ 7. Dave and the dealer made a legal and binding contactural sale. Dave was under no obligation to say or do anything to this dealer. Actually Dave should return to the dealer and say ” Do you have any more Morgans you would like to sell me ? “
And….I’m sure the dealer gave the coin back to the person he bought it from as scrap….? Right. If you buy something as “junk”, or “as is”, ect…..you may actually get more value out of your purchase than you expect. A dealer may want to wholesale a set of coins, and not go to the trouble of checking the coins – in that case, he sold it as “junk silver”, just like the dealer most likely bought it as “junk silver”. The unsuspecting buyer got lucky, and then did the legwork (that the dealer didn’t do) of identifying the coin, and reselling it. It’s definately Not dishonest not to give the dealer more money….Just like it’s not dishonest for the dealer to not give the original owner more money….You guys are Crazy if you think different! That’s like saying – you can cheat the individual, but not the dealer – what a Double Standard!!!
You are all nuts. Coin dealers would likely offer almost nothing if Daves daughter or wife took it in to sell after his death. It was in the $7 dollar bin because they bought it for $4 and were to lazy to go though the low grade coins. If you sell or buy its tuff. If you went in and said I sold my 1893 s for four dollars and i realize its worth more the dealer would kick you out. All sales final. I bought an 1984 p for $20 should I have said i feel bad?