The Glade 4.0

Here's some evidence as to why we end up with huge price bubbles every 2-3 decades.

[youtube]Gk5aRIz17fk[/youtube]

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"It's real, grew up in trife life, the times of white lines
The hype vice, murderous nighttimes and knife fights invite crimes" - Nasir Jones

To be fair, usually people on the street like that with a camera crew are trying to pull something over on people.

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“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” - Thomas Paine

My thoughts exactly.

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

OK, so let's imagine what would happen if he tried it with no obvious mike or camera crew. Frankly, I'd still bet a lot of people would be wary about taking him up on the offer. Most would likely think it was some sort of con. I'm betting that's what a lot of the people who said they didn't have any money were thinking.

People don't have experience with gold coins by and large any more. How would you verify on the street, without being knowledgeable about Maple Leafs or Krugerrands, or Walking Libertys, that the coin offered is authentic? Look at the guy who kept saying "I'm not a collector"--people these days don't think of the value in a coin's material, but in its collector's value (which I guess kinda proves the video's point...)

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Women are from Hoboken, men are from Trenton. ~ Jimmy Kimmel

Personally, I think if somebody did that to me, I'd probably state that I'd have to get the authenticity verified prior to purchase.

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“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” - Thomas Paine

This.

Having dinner with Elmo he showed me freshly minted .999 silver coins. Honestly they look like token you would get at a Ren Faire. While the striking mark is some piece of mind, I could make a believeable mold for that in an afternoon and pass coated coins.

So a combo of ignorance, and being wary is a reasonable explanation for this video. Since "If it's too good to be true, it usually is" seems to apply here, I'm sure if they repeated the experiment with a hundred dollar bill, many people would assume it could be fake.

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A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. ~ John Stuart Mill

True, it's a camera, but that's like trading a 50 dollar bill for a thousand dollar bill. I don't care if there's a camera and PETA is there trying to dump buckets of cow blood on me (I'd be pissed still). I'd buy the damned thing.

Secondly, the Canadian Maple Leaf is a fairly well known coin, as far as gold minted money is concerned.

And third, not a single person even offered to buy it on the condition if its verified authenticity. I'm not saying there isn't a good reason to be apprehensive, but no one gave a good reason.

The last idiot was the most telling as to how people have lost their perception of what money truly is. He said "I don't need it". Does anyone need money? No, of course not. He didn't need the paper currency is his pocket either.

He certainly would have said he needed a huge chunk of his mortgage or rent paid for the month more than he needed 4 or 5 days worth of groceries.

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"It's real, grew up in trife life, the times of white lines
The hype vice, murderous nighttimes and knife fights invite crimes" - Nasir Jones

My first thought would be that it's a scam.

Just because some one tells you something is solid gold, certainly doesn't mean that it's true.

Testing if it's actually gold is easy enough: bite it. True gold is quite soft, about the same on moh's scale (the scale to determine hardness of rocks/minerals) as your fingernails, a 2.5 out of 10. The less pure the gold sample is, the harder it will be and the less likely you will leave a mark.

This won't tell you if then entire sample is gold though, obviously; just the outside. According to what I just looked up though, those coins are guaranteed to be 99.999% pure gold, so the bite test should work just fine.

You can also do this for silver, which is slightly harder at a 2.7 on the scale.

You could also quite easily flatten these samples with a hammer or a rock, as gold is very malleable.

So then I guess we have to presume someone is walking around with counterfeited money minted by the Royal Canadian Mint. The Canadian Gold Maple Leaf is one of the most commonly available gold bullion coins.

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"It's real, grew up in trife life, the times of white lines
The hype vice, murderous nighttimes and knife fights invite crimes" - Nasir Jones

If someone stopped me on the street and offered me a gold coin cheap, I wouldn't accept it. I wouldn't accept an offer of a car, a laptop computer, xbox 360, or any other item. I don't know this guy from Jack, and any too-good-to-be-true deal is automatically suspect. Even if I knew the offer was legitimate, I wouldn't accept. It's just an awkward situation.

On the other hand, if there was, say, a contest that I won, that would add some legitimacy and familiarity to the situation, so I would be more inclined to accept it. However, if there was a choice of prizes with the gold coin being one of them, I probably wouldn't choose it. A gold coin just isn't very practical. The only thing it's good for is to sell so I can buy something I'd rather have. I'd probably take a lesser prize if it was something I wanted. Does that mean I don't understand the value of money? Maybe.

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I'd take it in a heartbeat after trying to put a gouge in itwith my key or knife. If saw the camera I would assume it was exactly what it was - an attempt to show people doing stupid things on camera.

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

Or an attempt to document you buying stolen goods... see your thread about arrested for turning in a gun.

That is only a crime if you know they were stolen.

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

That is a lie. You receive a christmas gift. it turns out that it is stolen property.. you are still held accountable for possession of stolen property; ignorance is not protection.

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Darksiege
Traveller, Calé, Whisperer
Lead me not into temptation; for I know a shortcut

Apparently in the case of the guy who found that gun in the UK, that's true. Were this to become true in the US, it would not only violate hundreds of years of precedent, it'd be a travesty of true justice.

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“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” - Thomas Paine

This is an instance where the "reasonable man" standard is usually used. i.e. If a reasonable person would have known it was stolen, then you're liable.

Nevada-specific law (for example) regarding this is covered under NRS 205.275.

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"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko

Which isn't a crime. You aren't charged with a crime if you unknowingly own stolen goods - they are returned but you're not charged.

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

Elmo is correct. Ignorance of fact is a defense; ignorance of the law is not.

In the case of stolen property, that means not knowing that the property is stolen is a defense, but not knowing that it is illegal to hold stolen property is not.

Now, that said, generally when a law rests on what you know, claiming you didn't know it when you "reasonably should know" won't help you. "Reasonably should know" that based on the facts available to you at the time, if an average person would be able to figure out that the property was stolen, you can't claim you "didn't know". For example, if the person asks you to come to an abandoned building and pay cash... "gee, maybe that's stolen property!"

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

So it seems you've met my gun dealer

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History of the Condom
In 1272, the Muslim Arabs invented the condom, using a goat's lower intestine.
In 1873, the British somewhat refined the idea, by taking the intestine out of the goat first.

Nice guy, but not very subtle.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."