Rick Harrison faces shocking scams on Pawn Stars, from a supposedly biblical coin tied to Judas to a stolen submarine and an erased championship ring.

Las Vegas’ most famous pawn shop has seen everything from pirate treasures to priceless paintings, but few moments have left Rick Harrison and his team more stunned than the times they came face-to-face with outright scammers.

In a compilation of jaw-dropping encounters, *Pawn Stars* fans were treated to some of the most unbelievable, bizarre, and downright illegal attempts to cash in at the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop.

From a supposedly biblical coin that triggered a police investigation to a stolen submarine and a ring with its engraving mysteriously erased, these stories show just how wild things can get when greed meets gullibility.

It all began when a man named Ryan walked into the shop holding what he believed to be a piece of biblical history — a *Shekel of Tyre*, the same type of silver coin said to have been used to pay Judas for betraying Jesus.

Chumlee was the first to meet him at the counter and, in classic fashion, immediately brushed him off, saying the store only bought American coins. But Rick wasn’t about to let a potential relic from the time of Christ slip away that easily.

He examined the coin closely, explaining that while it might not be one of the infamous thirty pieces of silver, the Shekel of Tyre was indeed a real and valuable currency used over two thousand years ago.

Rick noticed the coin had been cleaned — a major red flag in the collector’s world that drastically lowers its value. Still, his instincts told him it was genuine.

After a brief back-and-forth, Ryan settled for $1,600, and Rick walked away feeling victorious. But the celebration didn’t last long.

Moments later, the shop’s head of security, Andy, delivered a bombshell: police had called to report that the coin might be stolen property. Rick’s heart sank — if the coin was indeed stolen, he’d have to hand it over and eat the loss.

For days, the shop was on edge as detectives worked the case. Finally, word came that the original owner had already been compensated by insurance, allowing Rick to keep the coin.

When he broke open the protective case to test it one last time, the results confirmed it — the Shekel of Tyre was real. The old man couldn’t resist mocking him, joking that it only took Rick thirty years to finally buy something authentic.

But that wasn’t the only time Rick’s sharp eye and good intentions landed him in trouble. In another unbelievable episode, a woman showed up with something no one had ever brought into the shop before — a one-man submarine.

Rick could hardly believe his eyes. She wanted $25,000 for it but was willing to negotiate. The sub, she explained, was sitting in someone’s yard, and they had given it to her just to get rid of it. The opportunity seemed too strange to ignore, and Rick eventually settled on $3,000.

To verify what he’d bought, he called in a submarine expert. The verdict was brutal. The sub, known as the “Sea Urchin,” was built in 1994 for an Australian film company and was essentially worthless in its current condition.

It would cost $100,000 just to make it seaworthy again. Rick’s hopes of flipping it for a profit sank like a stone. But the real shock came later — when the *actual owner* of the submarine saw it featured on *Pawn Stars*.

Lawyers quickly got involved, and after a series of legal back-and-forths, the sub was returned to its rightful owner. Rick’s “great deal” turned into one of his biggest embarrassments ever.

Scammers have long tested the patience of the Gold & Silver team, and one of the most brazen attempts came when a man brought in a *Penn State University 1973 Orange Bowl ring*.

The seller claimed he’d bought it decades ago from a teammate and insisted it was worth $1,500. Rick and Corey were immediately suspicious.

Championship rings are valuable not just for their gold content, but for their provenance — and this one had a problem. The engraving identifying the player had been deliberately removed.

For Corey, that was an instant deal-breaker. He explained that any item with its identifying marks erased was illegal to buy or sell, comparing it to purchasing a car with its VIN number scratched off.

The seller was frustrated, saying he could have flipped it for a profit elsewhere, but the shop wasn’t taking any chances.

The Harrisons’ refusal to buy anything that even *smells* like stolen property is a rule that’s been drilled into the family from day one — and for good reason.

Long before the days of viral fame and reality TV, the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop faced one of its most painful lessons in honesty the hard way. Back when the late “Old Man” Harrison was still running things, he fell victim to a scam involving *cubic zirconia*.

At the time, the fake gemstones were new to the market and nearly indistinguishable from real diamonds. Believing they were buying genuine stones, the Harrisons spent tens of thousands of dollars — only to discover they had shelves full of worthless imitations.

The loss was crushing, somewhere between $25,000 and $30,000, but it forced the family to tighten their screening processes forever.

Years later, Rick found himself in another tricky moral bind — this time involving a *guitar made from tortoise shell*. The seller admitted right away that he wasn’t sure if it was even legal to sell.

Rick, intrigued but cautious, admired the guitar’s deep amber hues and craftsmanship but hesitated when he remembered that trading tortoise shell had been outlawed since the 1970s due to the species’ endangered status.

Unsure of what to do, he sought advice from a nearby shop owner, who confirmed that while owning such an item might not be illegal, selling it could lead to serious trouble.

Rick ultimately declined to make an offer, unwilling to risk a federal offense over a beautiful but questionable piece of history.

Across all these encounters, one theme stands out — the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop isn’t just a place where treasures change hands. It’s a stage where human nature plays out in all its forms: greed, deception, curiosity, and the eternal hope of getting rich quick.

For every genuine relic that walks through those doors, there’s a counterfeit, a stolen good, or a half-truth waiting to be exposed.

Rick Harrison has built an empire by navigating that fine line between trust and skepticism. But as the stories of the Shekel of Tyre, the lost submarine, the forged ring, and the tortoise guitar remind us, even the most seasoned pawn shop veterans can get blindsided.

In the unpredictable world of *Pawn Stars*, the real prize isn’t always the item on the counter — it’s spotting the scam before it costs a fortune.