Not quite sure what these figures are based on. I suppose these criminals didn't PM the writer of the article to let them know how much they have in their bags. The probable conclusion is therefore that these charts are based on stats, which I personally believe is crap.
Another important question, and people stated this before, is how you define "illegal". I think we all know the definition of "crime" but "illegal" as a concept is a lot larger than "crime".
This is however, in spite of the shortcomings of the original article, a very interesting discussion. (which I am not used to in the General Discussion Boards
)
What about coins that were bought with legal money but not declared to the IRS? Are these coins illegal?
What about coins that were bought with money from gambling or prostitution in a country were gambling or prostitution are legal, but by someone who lives in a country were it is illegal? Are these coins illegal?
As you see, this deserves an in-depth discussion, which is way too large to be simply captured within the limitations of a simple chart.