Insider pleads guilty in stealing 300 coins from money museum

Colorado Springs’ nationally known money museum on Thursday announced the thefts of nearly 300 rare coins — a $1 million inside-job pulled off five years ago by a man hired to watch over the collection.

The reason for the silence: the FBI’s vaunted art-crime team was on the case.

And they apparently got their man.

News of the thefts was disclosed Thursday after Wyatt Yeager, former American Numismatic Association Money Museum collections manager, pleaded guilty in a U.S. District Court in Delaware to theft of a major artwork, a felony that carries up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

He is due to be sentenced April 24.

The money museum at 818 N. Cascade St. reported the coins missing in October 2007 after completing a review of its collection. Yeager had left his job after just three months of employment. How he managed to steal the coins wasn’t disclosed.

Among the coins that vanished was an Australian 1813 Holey Dollar, worth nearly $150,000. Also missing are a 1795 Half Eagle worth $40,000 and an 1836 Gobrecht Dollar worth $25,000. A complete list can be found at www.money.org.

As at other museums, the coins were insured against theft. But each represents a piece of culture, history and art that could be gone forever, say the museum’s coin experts, known in their world as “numismatists.”

“We can replace some of those coins, but it’s not the same — we want our coins back,” said American Numismatic Association President Tom Hallenbeck, who said Yeager turned over a fraction of the missing coins as a condition of his plea.

Thirty-three have been recovered, others were sold, and the FBI is tracking the rest. Each bears distinctive markings and characteristics that can be forensically identified. Only black market collectors are liable to shoulder the risks of trading in the coins, museum officials say.

Yeager, 33, was hired in January 2007 and left suddenly in March 2007 — moving to Ireland. Background checks uncovered no evidence of prior crimes, said museum spokeswoman RyAnne Scott.

She declined to discuss further details of Yeager’s background, citing an employee privacy policy.

“The sad fact is, though, that 90 percent of museum thefts have some kind of insider component,” Scott said. “This was one guy who took advantage of the position of trust that he was put in.”

To beef up security, the museum hired security consultant Robert K. Wittman, founder of the FBI’s National Art Crime Team — the Picasso hunters.

The money museum is billed as the largest of its kind in the country and contains 250,000 rare coins, three of them valued at $1 million each.