Bandits Take Roman Coins Valued at Up to $1 Million

On Tuesday, after a day of pondering his bruises and losses, John Pace of Newport Beach declared that “the coin business is a tough business.”

How tough? At noon Monday, Pace said, two men with handguns walked into his home in Dover Shores, roughed up Pace and a coin appraiser and made off with two boxes of ancient Roman coins that Pace estimates are worth between $500,000 and $1 million.

The coins were insured, however. “I think my homeowner insurance covers up to $200,” Pace said.

Pace, 50, said he is not sure how many coins were stolen. He estimated that the robbers took between 10,000 and 15,000 Roman denarii--2,000-year-old coins made of hammered bronze and silver.

Pace said he has been in the coin business 10 years and had owned a brokerage in Costa Mesa until earlier this year. He said most of the stolen coins belong to a coin brokerage, not to him, but he declined to identify the firm.

Coins Being Appraised

Pace said he normally does not have the coins at home but had kept them there about two weeks to have them graded and logged by appraisers. Two appraisers were examining the coins Monday when the two robbers showed up, Pace said.

Pace described the men as Latinos in their 30s, about average height and weight. Both had handguns, but neither wore a mask or gloves. “They didn’t look professional,” Pace said. “I don’t know--maybe they were going to waste us.”

Pace said that when he first saw one of the intruders, he dashed toward his bedroom to get a gun. Pace said he tripped, however, and the gunman kicked him in the head and ordered him back to the living room. Pace said one of the appraisers also was kicked in the head but that no one was injured enough to require medical treatment.

Pace said the prospect of his wife and 12-year-old son returning to the house when the robbers were there caused him to take a chance. When the telephone rang and one of the robbers went to answer it, Pace said, he leaped for a sliding glass door, opened it and dashed into the yard. He said the gunman tried to reopen the door and pursue him.

A large German shepherd was in the yard, “but he thought I was coming after him. He put his tail between his legs and ran into his doghouse,” Pace said.

Pace ran to a neighbor’s house and telephoned police. Before officers arrived, however, the robbers picked up the two boxes of coins and about $12,000 in cash and jewelry they found in a bedroom and ran out the front door, Pace said. Outside, Pace said, they encountered his nephew, who had just arrived in a truck. The men ordered the nephew out and drove off in the truck, which they abandoned a short distance away, Pace said.

Best Coins Remain Safe

Pace said only about 6,000 of the coins belonged to him. “My real good coins they didn’t get,” Pace said. “They didn’t see them; they weren’t in sight. They would have got them if they’d have had time to ransack the place.”

Pace, who said he is the chief executive of All-Pro Sales in Newport Beach, an apparel company, and owner of Hasty’s in Anaheim, a garden supply firm, said Tuesday that he was “OK.”

“I’m just all stiff in my neck and shoulder, and I’ve got a sprained ankle and a gash in my ankle.”

What hurts him most is his mouth, he said. He thinks he may have indirectly tipped off the robbers.

“I probably got a big mouth. Somebody says something, and he says it to somebody else, and word gets out,” Pace said. “It was a setup.”

Newport police said they have few leads in the case.

“We don’t have much more than they were in their mid-30s, average height and weight,” said Detective John Desmond.

“We rarely have anything like this in Newport Beach,” he added.