Stacey inherited a rare silver dollar worth millions. The expert who appraised her coin is a football player for the Chicago Clout. WILD WORLD by Ginger Rapsus, an e-book available from Amazon.com.

There were two very expensive middlemen between Kagin/Contursi, owner of the $7.4 million Brasher Doubloon, and the Wall Street Hedge Fund buyer. John Albanese and the Blanchard firm. Since Chicagoan Walter Perschke's Virgil Brand-pedigreed Brasher Doubloon is on the market for $6 million and is unsold, it may be reasonably inferred that Kagin/Contursi's specimen was priced at about the same level or less as it has been a financial burden around their necks, costing them an initial $2.9M in 2005 and subsequent financing bringing it to $4.6 million as of the Los Angeles ANA- which was what I was told there by one of the principals.

A little basic math reveals that the two middlemen cost the Hedge Fund buyer approximately $1.4 million. Had the allegedly intelligent Hedge Fund buyer done just a little investigation, he'd have discovered the actual owners of the two available Brasher Doubloons on the market and dealt directly with them. It was well known in the numismatic marketplace of these coins' availability and approximate asking prices. Indeed, just "Googling" Brasher Doubloon would have revealed the current owners and that the Kagin/Contursi specimen has been widely publicized and exhibited at ANA conventions for several years.

These Wall Street types are supposed to be alert , imaginative and outstanding businessmen. Not! No wonder they are at the crux of our national financial problems.

The 40th annual meeting of Societe Americaine pour l'etude de la Numismatique francaise (SAENF) will take place at 2:00 pm, Saturday, January 7, during the New York International Numismatic Convention (Waldorf Astoria Hotel, January 5 through 8).

Richard Margolis will present a slide illustrated talk entitled, "Libertas Americana: Benjamin Franklin, Clodion, Dupre, and others".