Nosey Online

Editor & Publisher has the dirt on how the rare coin scandal investigation came to be.

NEW YORK When someone at The Blade in Toledo, Ohio, heard that a local coin dealer named Tom Noe might be doing some business with the state, Jim Drew, the Blade's Columbus bureau chief, started asking around. After all, what business does a coin dealer -- one who is also one of the most prominent non-elected Republicans in the Toledo area -- have with the government?

After calling several state agencies to ask whether they were doing business with Noe, Drew found out that the Bureau of Workers' Compensation had invested $50 million of taxpayer money with a rare-coin business run by Noe, a major donor to the Republican administration in Ohio, and a "Pioneer" Bush fund-raiser. And so began the Blade's local probe, which has now drawn national attention and shows no signs of coming to an end.

"I've been in the business for 11 years here and 18 years total," said reporter Mike Wilkinson. "I've never worked on a story like this that's had this much impact and has been this much fun."

Even before it got national attention, the investigation was making waves locally, Wilkinson said: "In Toledo, you can't drop a coin on the street without someone making a joke."

In late 2004, after the initial tips, the investigation picked up steam as Wilkinson set out to survey about 20 states to see if any of them had ever invested in coins. When it turned out none had, the story seemed even more odd.

Read the whole thing. The Akron Beacon Journal adds a new twist.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - The Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation, which gave $55.4 million to an Ohio coin dealer to invest, said it was surprised that an inventory of assets is turning up more than rare coins.

"We had not heard about being involved in any collectibles. Our expectation was that we have investments only in coins," spokesman Jeremy Jackson said.

Attorney William Wilkinson, who represents Maumee coin dealer Tom Noe, said coins were one aspect of the investment plan.

"The investments included non-coin collectibles, things like valuable letters and papers," Wilkinson said. "These are assets of the coin funds. There is an enormous inventory of non-coin collectibles."

This thing keeps growing and growing. At some point there has to be some serious scape-goating. Yesterday I pointed out that the scandal has reached Taft's office. Hopefully this investigative series actually goes somewhere. It is time for Ohio to return to it's blue roots and kick the Republicans out of office. Otherwise, rare coins and paper are going to be the least of our concerns.