As Julian Leidman packed up more than $4 million in rare coins after a Connecticut show, the thieves probably already had the prominent collector under surveillance and had laid plans for one of the biggest coin heists in U.S. history.

Leidman eased his minivan onto Interstate 95 south toward his Maryland home and the thieves probably followed, waiting and watching for dozens of miles. Then they saw their opening.

When Leidman stopped for dinner at Tiffany's restaurant in Pine Brook, N.J., he took a table near a window so he could keep an eye on his vehicle. The thieves sneaked around the side he couldn't see, smashed a window and took at least five cases.

Thefts of rare coins have spiked in recent years, experts say, crimes linked to the run-up in gold and silver prices. Coin thieves are often part of organized rings, some from Colombia and others with ties to the Russian mafia, that orchestrate sophisticated, lightning-quick and sometimes ruthlessly violent heists, according to the Numismatic Crime Information Center, a nonprofit organization that tracks coin thefts.

Fairfax County police think thieves probably followed a dealer to his Annandale home after a show in April and snatched coins and banknotes worth as much as $500,000 when the dealer left his car for about 10 minutes. In 2011, a mother and son from Texas were convicted of being part of a scheme to steal $152,000 in coins from a New Market, Va., collector.

"Why rob a bank with cameras, witnesses, and there's a good chance your picture will end up on the evening news?" said Steve Ellsworth, president of the Virginia Numismatic Society and a coin security expert. "Coin thefts often don't have witnesses, and criminals can make off with far more money."

The October 2009 scheme targeting Leidman, which has resulted in a case that is nearing its conclusion in federal court in New York, opens a window on the world of thefts that sometimes seems pulled from a Hollywood script.

To read the complete article, see:Driven by gold and silver prices, thieves target coin collections(www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/driven-by-gold-and-silver
-prices-thieves-target-coin-collections/2012/06/10/gJQAouh5SV_story.html)