John Lupia submitted the following information from the online draft of his book of numismatic biographies for this week's
installment of his series. Thanks! This week's subjects are two infamous coin thieves. -Editor
Raptopoulos was a very famous coin thief in Athens, Greece in the late 19th century, celebrated for one of the greatest heists in coin history. He
was compared to Timoleon Pericles Blasto the famous thief of the British Museum discovered and convicted in 1844. Raptopoulos was a very daring thief
whose arrogance caught up with him sending him where he belonged, to prison. Raptopoulos robbed the Athens Museum of all the rarest coins in its
collection and smuggled them into Paris selling them to the renowned firm of Messrs. Rollin & Feuardent.
Not content with making a killing in the market on stolen loot Raptopoulos drunk with arrogance decided to rob Rollin & Feuardent and flee
elsewhere, probably to America, to resell the same stolen coins. Fortunately, he was caught. Below is just one newspaper clipping that published the
story written by B. B. of the St. James Gazette newspaper of London, which circulated on the wire published in papers all over the world in
1888.
The American Architect and Building News, Vol. XXIII, No. 647, May 19, 1888, page 238.
The reporter apparently misspelled Raptopoulos as Raptoporilos. News-Palladium, Saturday, March 31, 1888, page 4.
To read the complete article, see:
RAPTOPOULOS
(https://sites.google.com/a/numismaticmall.com/www/numismaticmall-com/raptopoulos)
* * * * *
The entire inventory of the Lupia Numismatic Library is for sale. Individual items will be available before the remaining archives are broken up
into parcels sold at philatelic auctions in the U. S. and Hong Kong. Check NumismaticMall.com frequently
as dozens of new items with estimates will be posted daily until everything is sold.
All inquiries will be given prompt and courteous attention. Write to: john@numismaticmall.com .
Wayne Homren, Editor
The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization
promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org.
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