Last month, I wrote about a coin heist that was featured in a hobby publication. The highlights of that feature, garnered from the January 31, 2005 edition of Coin World, are as follows.

The original story centered on a missing shipment of U.S. coins. The shipment belonged to the United States Federal Reserve Bank and was being transferred from New Jersey to Louisiana when the entire shipment disappeared. The transport vehicle, an eighteen-wheel tractor-trailer, was located in Florida abandoned at a truck stop. The ignition keys were locked in the tractor. Missing from the truck were the driver and the coins. The most interesting aspect of the mystery is that all of the missing coins were U.S. five-cent pieces - $180,000 worth; that's 3,600,000 nickels that were stored in 900 bags, at a total weight of 45,000 pounds.

Last month I stated, "Now that's a bunch of nickels, folks! It was no easy task carting those coins away." I wondered where one might hide such a stash. It's not exactly pocket change. Even more, I wondered what one would do with all of those nickels. I opined that paying for items in bulk nickels would likely draw even more attention than spending too many $100 bills. And I commented that I hoped that if/when whoever perpetrated this is caught, that we hear the rest of the story. It should prove to be very interesting.

Well ... this month, we get some more of the story. According to the February 21, 2005 edition of Coin World, the whereabouts of the truck driver remains unknown, but the majority of the heisted five-cent coins have now been recovered. A joint task force of various Federal agencies, using investigative leads and metal detectors, has located the stash in the back yard of a residence. Having been stashed in wooden box, the coins were buried underground. The recovered coins were still in their original Federal Reserve shipping bags.

A Police spokesperson stated that the missing truck driver is now considered a suspect in the crime, and may have left the country. It's reported that eighty-eight marijuana plants were also seized from the residential property where the five-cent coins were recovered.

Additionally, the February 22, 2005 edition of Numismatic News reports that four men were charged in the case on February 7, 2005. There was no indication whether arrests had yet been made nor whether the missing truck driver was one of the charged parties. The nickels were recovered on a Miami-area Florida farm, buried four feet underground. The owner of the property is missing as well. One of the investigative leads developed when, on January 15, 2005, a man entered a Miami, Florida supermarket and deposited $5000 worth of nickels into a coin-counting machine, apparently drawing conspicuous attention to himself.

The coin-counting machine is probably one of those CoinStar units that are so prevalent in food marts throughout the country. If not for this man's unintelligent actions, the nickels may have been discovered as a hoard in an archeological dig centuries from now. It'll be interesting to follow this story as it further unravels.

Recently WINS was able to promote some numismatic goodwill and tout our organization a bit in the process - thanks to the efforts of one of our members. WINS was contacted by the owner of another hobby web site requesting permission to reprint several articles from our WINS Newsletter. The author of the articles - our Newsletter editor, Doug Prather - gave permission for his articles to appear on the OmniCoin.com website. In turn, JD White, our Operations Administrator, granted permission on behalf of WINS, as per our policy, for OmniCoin to reproduce the articles.

At the end of each article, OmniCoin will publish a link back to the WINS web site. In addition, OmniCoin has listed WINS on its Links Page among a mere handful of other numismatic luminary organizations such as the ANA, PNG, CNA and WBCC.

OmniCoin was obviously as impressed with Doug's articles and knowledge as we are. Way to go, Doug! Thanks for everything you do for WINS and the coin hobby in general; and thanks for providing the catalyst for this goodwill exchange.

Several weeks ago, an issue arose concerning an off-topic discussion which occurred on the WINS Trade List. The concern primarily centered on the notion that the Trade List is for buying and selling numismatic-related items, not for discussion - especially off-topic conversations. And though the off-topic discussion had developed naturally within context, the Trade List is not an appropriate forum for such content. While addressing the concerns, I learned that the primary contributing factor to the Trade List OT discussion was the fact that replies on the Trade List defaulted to the list as opposed to the original sender.

After a few brief consultations, the reply-default was reset by JD White, Operations Administrator. Now, when you click the reply button on the Trade List, your response is directed solely to the original message author, not back to the Trade List. Hopefully this will help deter general conversations on the Trade List. Please remember ... the Trade List is for buying, selling and trading, while the Talk List is for discussions. Thank you.

That's it for this month. In the colder portions of the globe, you polar bears out there can enjoy the last few weeks of Winter. For those of us who prefer the warmer weather ... take heart! Spring is just around the corner.

Best Regards,

Ralph J. Huntzinger
WINS President