Free Republic

[Full title: ‘A high-stakes dispute over ten pieces of gold’: Court reclaims priceless Double Eagle coins for U.S. government] When the coins were struck in 1933, the United States Mint must have understood the golden pieces were the last of a dying breed. What the minters could not have foreseen was the saga of thievery and legal limbo that would unfold over the next 90 years, centered on 10 of the gold coins that bore Lady Liberty on the front and a soaring eagle on the reverse. At the time they were minted, the gold pieces had a face value...

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- The golf ball sat at the bottom of the left pocket of Wayne Mitchell's green cargo shorts. "I've got a zip on it," Mitchell said of the zipper pulled tight across the pants leg. He might have considered a safety deposit box. Mitchell owned -- for a few hours, at least -- one of the most famous golf balls in Masters history. He got it Sunday afternoon after Louis Oosthuizen double-eagled the par-5 2nd hole, pulled the Titleist from the cup and, incredibly, underhand-tossed it toward the patrons seated behind the green. It landed in the hands...

Roy Langbord had guessed that someone in his family might have hidden away a great treasure decades before, but not until his mother had him check a long-neglected safe-deposit box did he realize just how great it was. Inside the box, opened in 2003, he found an incredibly rare coin, wrapped in a delicate paper sleeve. It was a gold $20 piece with Lady Liberty on one side, a bald eagle flying across the other and, at Liberty’s left, the four digits that made it so valuable: 1933. The famous “double eagles” from that year were never officially released by...

The family of a late Center City jeweler sued the federal government yesterday seeking the return of 10 extremely rare 1933 gold U.S. coins that could fetch millions each at auction.The daughter and grandsons of Israel Switt contend the government illegally seized the "double eagle" coins after they brought them to the U.S. Mint to be authenticated in 2004.The 1-ounce coins, each with a face value of $20, were among more than 445,000 that were minted but never circulated after the United States went off the gold standard in 1933. The entire supply - except for these 10 and at...

After a family asks U.S. Mint to authenticate 10 old coins, gov't grabs them. Potential value: $10M. A Philadelphia antiques dealer plans to sue the U.S. Mint to recover rare gold coins worth millions of dollars that the federal government has seized because it says they were illegally obtained. Ten "Double Eagle" $20 coins minted in 1933 were discovered in September in a Philadelphia antiques and jewelry store and voluntarily handed by its owners, the Langbord family, to the Mint for authentication. In June, the Mint confirmed they were the coveted Double Eagles but informed the Langbords that the coins...

PHILADELPHIA - The U.S. Mint seized 10 Double Eagle gold coins from 1933, among the rarest and most valuable coins in the world, that were turned in by a jeweler seeking to determine their authenticity. Joan S. Langbord plans a federal court lawsuit to try to recover them, her attorney, Barry H. Berke, said Wednesday. Langbord found the coins among the possessions of her father, longtime Philadelphia jeweler Israel Switt, who had acknowledged having sold some of the coins decades ago. She now operates her father's business. David Lebryk, acting director of the Mint, had announced in a news release...