February 7, 2013 – In the night of January 31, 2013 three persons broke into the firm of Chilean businessman Lorenzo Jiménez in Santiago de Chile and were able to crack the safe containing a precious coin and antiquities collection. Reportedly this was the fourth attempt and, eventually, they succeeded.
Mr Jiménez, a passionate collector of primarily South American items, spread the news in order to inform dealers and collectors. As the stolen material is very rare and eye-catching there is a good chance to recognize it, when it is offered. The collection consisted of a complete 8 reales series of Santiago including a 8 reales CIII type and a Pillar Dollar in addition to all the dates for Charles IV and Ferdinand VII in all their varieties, a series that includes 70 different pieces.
Also there are about 20 Chile Independent coins and several hundreds of colonial coins, many republican too, including Patterns (200 pieces) and hundreds of error coins (about 400), also there are coins from Peru, Mexico and Potosi, including a collection of about 300 silver cobs.
In total, about 3,000 coins were stolen. About 90 gold pre-columbian figures in clay and gold were taken from the same office for a total value of over one million dollars. Mr Jiménez is offering a 5m Chilean pesos reward (appr. $10,576) for any information leading to the coins and the arrest of the thieves. Local Police is investigating by using CCTV images of the suspect.
If you have any information, please contact the Numismatic Crime Information Center.
You can find the report on the website of the Numismatic Crime Information Center.
A detailed article appeared in the Chilean newspaper 24 horas.
Lorenzo Jiménez is active in the Coin Network where you can visit his profile.