Local News in Brief : 3 Coin Dealers Charged

The Federal Trade Commission has charged three coin dealers in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills with misrepresenting the value of coins they sold through the mail and over the telephone, and a judge placed the businesses in receivership.

The FTC does not know how many customers were cheated, but one Torrance man paid nearly $50,000 for coins worth about $5,000, said Ann Guler, a spokeswoman for the FTC.

Charged in the complaint were Woodmar Corp. of Los Angeles, which did business under the name Republic Rare Coins; Shelmar Corp. of Beverly Hills, which did business under the name Beverly Hills Coin Gallery, and Plano Corp. of Los Angeles, believed to be a subsidiary of Republic.

U.S. District Judge David Kenyon issued a temporary restraining order freezing the assets of the firms and ordered a receiver to take over the companies.

The companies promoted coins through the mail, telephone and in television and newspaper ads, stating that customers who bought the coins could make as much as 27% interest on their investment, the complaint said. Many of the coins sold were Morgan silver dollars minted in the 1800s, Guler said.