What he should have done was to take it to another country and quietly sell it there. I think when he found out it might be worth $250,000 he lost his mind.
He knows his father pilfered the coin. It is stolen property and as such as soon as it is discovered the title reverts back to the original owner.
The coin dealer better be glad he didn’t buy it for $250,000. If the government found out after the transfer, the coin dealer would have been out the $250,000 and the penny.
I don’t think we can be certain that it was pilfered. I’m betting there was a time between when they were produced and when they were destroyed. It might have been picked up off the floor. It might have been someone saying to a boss: “hey, can I have one of these?”
The article doesn’t say how many were minted, but pennies in the 70’s were still just pennies. You’d find them lying on the sidewalk, in overstuffed furniture, in car ashtrays. They weren’t highly valued.
They could have been loosely handled between the time when they were going to be used all the way to the time they were decided against.
That would still make him NOT the legitimate owner, but we don’t have to conclude they were pilfered.
As the mint frequently used to let employees obtain early releases you have no standing to make the assumption it was stolen. In case you haven’t noticed, the burden of proof here is supposed to be on the prosecution...