Brother, Can You Spare a Commemorative Dime?

With coin collecting enjoying a renewal -- thanks to the the 50 state quarter series -- scam artists are making a mint. So the US Mint wants Congress to crack down on dealers passing off fake commemorative coins. Only Congress can authorize a commemorative coin. But in one case, a dealer simply painted silver dollars with gold paint and passed them off as commemorating the astronauts killed in the Columbia shuttle crash. The Mint wants fines of $5,000 for print ads and $25,000 for broadcast ads for fake commemorative coins. That's a lot of quarters. (LAT)