Cops: Dealer sold rare coins without permission

A coin dealer from Oceanside faces a grand larceny charge after he took three high-priced coins he had been given for appraisal then sold them without permission, pocketing the profits, police said.

It was hardly loose change. Police said one of the coins, a pewter $1 piece based on a design suggested by Benjamin Franklin, was worth $75,000 and dates to 1776.

Another, a $5 gold piece from 1851 made during the time of the California Gold Rush, was valued at more than $50,000, police said. None of the coins has been recovered.

Nassau police identified the man they arrested, described as "a self-employed dealer/appraiser of coins," as Anthony J. Lombardo, 48, of East Lexington Avenue in Oceanside.

Lombardo's attorney, Laurence J. Lebowitz of Manhattan, said: "My client entered a plea of not guilty." Lebowitz declined to comment further.

Police said Lombardo was arrested Tuesday at 2:01 p.m. in Long Beach. He was arraigned Wednesday on a charge of second-degree grand larceny and released at First District Court in Hempstead. No bail was set.

The coins' owner, a 55-year-old collector from Old Brookville whose identity was not made public, gave Lombardo the coins to be "graded," a form of appraisal in numismatics, police said.

Lombardo got the coins in October, then later sold them to a dealer in Hawthorne, N.J., without permission, said Det. Sgt. Dennis Ude of the Nassau police. Authorities did not say how much money Lombardo received for the sale.

The coins included a 2009 $20 gold piece that, while not rare, is worth $2,500, police said; the 1851 $5 Humbert gold coin; and the rare 1776 pewter Continental dollar believed to have been struck in a makeshift private mint in Freehold, N.J., not long after the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

According to Harry Miller, owner of Millers Mint in Patchogue, who is not affiliated with the case, the 1776 coin was the first silver dollar coin authorized by the Continental Congress when paper money wasn't trusted - and it's probably one of about 100 left from an initial batch of about 1,000 made.

One online site described the coin as being "heavily influenced by sketches submitted by Benjamin Franklin."