American Coins Targeted in Montville, NJ Theft
Here’s why you need to keep you collection private and safe…
MONTVILLE — Rare coins estimated to be worth millions of dollars were stolen from the car of a renowned Maryland dealer when he stopped in Pine Brook for dinner on his way home from a coin show.
Julian Leidman left the Coinfest coin show in Stamford, Conn., late Sunday with his wife and traveled to his brother-in-law’s home in Pine Brook, where they stopped for dinner at Tiffany’s on Route 46.
After more than an hour, Leidman said, the group left the restaurant to find a “terrible” sight: Glass littered the ground around his 2009 Toyota Sienna, which he had strategically parked in front of the restaurant so he could keep an eye on the driver’s side and rear, he said. The passenger-side window had been smashed and four bags, three of which were heavier than 50 pounds, were missing from the cargo hold.
Gone were the contents of two of the bags — a cache of valuable coins and collectible currency that Leidman, 63, of Silver Spring, Md., had displayed at the show.
The inventory included individual pieces valued as high as $160,000, as well as many extremely rare and unusual coins and currency dating to the Colonial era, he said.
“It was a huge amount, seven figures,” Leidman said, enumerating the loss. “This is the worst thing that has ever happened to me.” [more...]