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PNG Members Recover<br />
Coins From 2001 Theft<br />
Submitted by Fred Weinberg (PNG Member)<br />
A dozen of the 44 U.S. error coins<br />
stolen from an Indiana motel room<br />
in 2001 have been recovered and<br />
returned to their delighted owner<br />
through the joint efforts of three<br />
Professional Numismatists Guild<br />
members. At the time of<br />
the theft eight years ago<br />
these coins were to be<br />
the foundation of<br />
a planned book<br />
about off-metal<br />
errors.<br />
The recovered<br />
coins belong<br />
to collector<br />
and researcher<br />
M a r k<br />
L i g h t e r m a n<br />
of Sanford,<br />
Florida. They<br />
include what is<br />
believed to be the<br />
only known Walking<br />
Liberty half dollar struck<br />
on a planchet intended for<br />
five-cent pieces; one of three<br />
known Standing Liberty quarter<br />
dollars struck on a one-cent planchet;<br />
a unique 1858 Flying Eagle cent on<br />
a silver half-dime planchet; and a<br />
double denomination Indian cent<br />
on a previously-struck Barber dime.<br />
There is also a transitional error<br />
1944-dated Washington quarter on<br />
a zinc planchet intended for 1943<br />
cents.<br />
The coins were stolen along with<br />
a camera, laptop computer and<br />
a collection of over 1,000 casino<br />
gaming chips from Lighterman’s<br />
motel<br />
room<br />
in Southport, Indiana when<br />
he was traveling to the Central States<br />
Numismatic Society convention in<br />
Indianapolis in April 2001.<br />
The recovery was made by PNG<br />
member Paul Nugget of Spectrum<br />
East in East Meadow, New York;<br />
Page 47<br />
minterrornews.com<br />
PNG associate member Andrew<br />
Glassman, President of Spectrum<br />
Numismatics International in<br />
Irvine, California; and PNG Board<br />
Member and former PNG President<br />
Fred Weinberg of Fred Weinberg,<br />
Inc. in Encino, California.<br />
Ironically, Lighterman was<br />
told by Weinberg about the<br />
unexpected recovery just<br />
a few hours after he<br />
went to the bank to<br />
look at his remaining<br />
off-metal error coins<br />
for the first time<br />
since the theft.<br />
“I was in total<br />
shock because I<br />
had not touched<br />
the wrong planchet<br />
collection in eight<br />
years, and that same<br />
day I got the phone call<br />
that a dozen of the coins<br />
had been recovered. After<br />
all these years I thought they<br />
were in a river somewhere because<br />
nothing had ever surfaced from the<br />
theft except for my Nikon camera<br />
that showed up in a pawn shop in<br />
Ohio and some obsolete casino chips<br />
someone tried to cash in at a Florida<br />
casino,” said Lighterman.<br />
“Now they’re going back into my<br />
collection. These are the keys to the<br />
collection and the book I’m working
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