Man learns not to pack Silver coins in checked bag the hard way

Let’s talk about security.

If you own precious metals and you opt to keep them in your possession, you need to take steps to keep them secure, right? You don’t want to be like the lady who hid her silver coins in a Tupperware container where her “boyfriend” could steal them.

This seems self-evident, and yet I’m constantly running across stories about people doing dumb things with their gold and silver.

So today, I have some advice that I never imagined I would need to offer.

Don’t pack your valuable silver coins in your checked luggage.

Darren King is a Utah coin dealer. He was flying out of the Salt Lake City airport heading toward the old Klondike Gold Rush town of Whitehorse, Yukon. He packed silver coins in his suitcase and when he arrived at his destination, discovered they were gone.

The coins were valuable in and of themselves, given that they were silver. Keep in mind, at the current price, a 1964, 90 percent silver U.S. quarter is worth nearly $12. And they call this junk silver!

King wasn’t carrying junk. He had some valuable coins minted in the 1800s. He specifically mentioned Morgan silver dollars. Their melt value is currently over $50 per coin, but some dates are worth significantly more to collectors. King estimated the value of his collection was over $10,000.

To be fair, it doesn’t sound like King’s bad decision-making was a function of some unfortunate circumstances.

It started because he was running late.

We’ve all been there, right? We get stuck in traffic. We spill coffee all over our shirts. We have to go back home because we forgot our ID. Later, we’re rushing through the airport, panicked that we might miss our flight. And then we hit the TSA security checkpoint and see a long line of people.

That’s apparently what happened to King. I mean, I made up the scenario, but it was almost certainly something similar. Or maybe he just slept through his alarm. Regardless, he was late and apparently not thinking clearly. 

That's when he made his second mistake of the day. He listened to a TSA agent who advised him to check his coins to avoid prolonged screening at the checkpoint.

Now, one has to wonder why some coins would trigger extra security measures. It’s not like you can take down an airliner with silver. Of course, there are a lot of things to wonder about when it comes to airport security.

Regardless, King followed the wisdom of the TSA and quickly regretted it. According to the report on KUTV, King spotted his bag on the tarmac and noticed something was amiss. When he arrived in Vancouver and retrieved his bag to switch airlines, he discovered all but one of his silver coins were missing.

King reported the theft to the police and filed a claim with Delta Airlines.

That was as fruitless as you can probably imagine.

Police said they found "no evidence a theft occurred, rather it seemed to show the (ramp) employees found a few coins had fallen out of a piece of luggage, and they picked them up and returned them to the bag."

If you are an observant reader, you’ve already picked up on a discrepancy. King said there was only one coin left in the bag. The police statement said “coins” (plural) were returned to the bag by ramp personnel.

In a statement, Delta said it has "zero-tolerance for baggage pilferage" and that it "completed a thorough investigation." However, there doesn’t seem to be any theory on what happened to the coins. They are still missing, and nobody has been held accountable.

I guess Delta tolerated the pilferage.

However, the company does seem sorry.

"While we cannot change what happened, please know that we take these matters seriously and have reinforced our internal processes to ensure the highest standards of security and accountability.”

As you can imagine, King isn’t satisfied with the investigation, but it sounds like he learned his lesson. He told KUTV that he would never check valuables again.

“I gave you my belongings, entrusted you with my belongings to secure them and keep them safe, and I didn't get them back."

So, what have we learned?

Take care of your gold and silver, and don't trust just anybody with it.