Carrollton Police say a local jewelry store-owner is scammed after purchasing what he believed could be up to $38,000 worth of coins for only $1,200. Investigator Steven Davenport says the suspect showed the store-owner 17 rare coins which were legitimate; and a book containing another 80 coins which Davenport calls “high quality counterfeits.” He says the store-owner believed the 80 booked coins to be equal to the coins he had sampled, which according to Davenport, could be worth up to $400 apiece. “The fake coins had to be sent off to a specialist to be identified as fake,” he says. “The fake coins had dates on them of 1877 and markings that they were minted Carson City. Well, there were no silver coins minted at Carson City in 1877. A slight difference in weight shows that the coins were not real silver, too.”
Davenport says the suspect had 80 other coins in which the jewelry store-owner did not purchase and he urges local pawn shop owners to be take caution.