Past Times with Coins

Editor’s Note: For nearly 70 years, the feature-rich pages of Coins magazine, Numismatic News’ venerable sister publication, have tracked the history, fun and the growth of this great hobby, while also attracting new collectors to pursue what was once deemed the “hobby of kings.” Dusting off these time-aged issues, from the early 1960s and beyond, each installment of “Past Times with Coins,” written by its former longtime editor, explores what nuggets of interest they contain.

About the same time as notices began appearing in newspapers across the nation about the search for four men believed to have been involved in the late 1962 theft of a major coin collection from the Truman Presidential Library (covered in the “Past Times” column that ran in the Nov. 2, 2021, issue of Numismatic News), another coin theft received widespread attention in the press and led a coin collector/police sergeant to set up and capture the likely suspects.

“Burglars Seize Coin Collections Valued At $150,000” reads the headline on an AP story datelined to Middlesboro, Ky. “Coin collections with a total estimated value of $150,000 are missing,” recorded the Nov. 27, 1962 issue of the Stamford (Conn.) Daily Advocate. “They were stolen from a druggist in Middlesboro and a newspaper employee in Minneapolis.

“Perry H. Siler, co-owner of two drug stores, said a collection valued at $90,000 was taken last weekend while he and his wife were away.

“Roger W. Lanns, 31, said his $60,000 collection was stolen Sunday night while he was at his job in the Minneapolis Tribune mailing room.

“Siler, a collector for 18 years, said he had a $1 gold piece worth $6,000, plus commemorative silver, paper money and thousands of pennies, many of them Indian heads.

“Lanns said many of his coins were uncirculated pennies obtained directly from the mint.”

It was the Lanns theft that brought Pennsylvania State policeman Sgt. James A. Walsh into action.

“‘Sergeant Walsh,’ the voice said hur