[Orange1998]

Govt claims family never paid inheritance tax on the coins. So the Govt wants inheritance tax and confiscated the coins? Wow.

[PGR88]

Putting gold in front of the US Treasury is like putting raw steak in front of a hungry dog.

[Trajan88]

Brutal.

Doesn't sound like due process was served... I guess that's what happens when nothing is certain, but death and taxes.

Hopefully the family gets something out of this except a punch in the face.

[penelopesire]

This is the kind of ‘change’ Obama was talking about....soon he will be rifling around in everyone’s couches and old hand bags....lol.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Watch them end up in Mr. Soros’ safe deposit box.

[ken5050]

That’s obvious..

[liberalh8ter]

Wait! It's even better than that.....Gov't wants inheritance tax on coins they confiscated because they claim they were stolen.

This reminds me of a guy I went to high school with. He embarked on a little illegal import business that was very lucrative. When the Feds caught up with him he had a very nice home, boats, cars, all the goodies. They confiscated everything and sent him to club Fed and when he got out, they handed him a bill from the IRS that exceeded 125k. They "estimated" his earnings and figured how much he should have paid in income tax. Last I heard, he was still paying an attorney to sort through it. Crime doesn't pay (unless you're the IRS).

[ColdSteelTalon]

Look you have no property rights. You never did. The government can take what it wants and you have to take it. Nothing new here. Time to move on.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

The retired father of a friend of mine spent a lot of time roaming his neighborhood with his metal detector. One day he discovered a bag of double eagles in a neighbor's backyard that were probably hidden there when FDR outlawed gold.

He's waiting for the neighbor to move so he can buy the house and pretend he just discovered them.

[RobinOfKingston]

If the gubmint winds up with these coins and keeps them, they would be worth no more than, quite literally, their weight in gold.

If the gubmint left them in the hands of Ms Langbord they would be sold, taxes could be collected each time they were sold thereafter.

So the bully could make a few hundred right now, or millions into the future.

[G Larry]

Ok, so you’re stupid enough to ask the gov’t to do the authentication.....
I.Q. = 80

How dumb do you have to be to give them ALL OF THEM?????
I.Q. = 5

[Elpasser]

But think for a minute how dumb the US Treasury is.

If the US wins this, they get to keep 10 1-oz coins that have a bullion value to them of $15,000.

If they let the people keep the coins and sell them, they get to collect millions of $ in inheritance taxes on them.

DUMB and DUMBER

[hinckley buzzard]

For those who care, the fact is that the 1933 Double Eagle was never issued into circulation. There was no legal way for any private individual to secure any of them. That they are stolen from the government is beyond dispute. The problem now is that the thief is undoubtedly dead, while others have been enriched with the thief's unlawful gains. So how do you see justice served?

[oblomov]

Since when is the government in the coin authentication business? There are private coin grading/authentication agencies that perform this function.

[Sgt_Schultze]

Inheritance taxes? The government confiscated exactly $200 in legal tender. How much inheritance tax can there possibly be on $200?

[outofstyle]

I've read about these rare coins. I don't believe they were ever released for circulation. The government decided not to circulate them and the coins at the mint were melted down. The government's argument is that any surviving coin had to have been stolen. From what I've read, they are correct. There is one coin that is legally owned. Apparently a foreign official obtained a stolen coin & applied for an export license to take it out of the country. This license was mistakenly granted.

[Bean Counter]

I’ve read about this story off and on over the years, and the Government has always been quite aggressive about going after these particular coins. Long, convoluted and fascinating story...

[ScubieNuc]

This story is fascinating, but it reminds me of a tale I heard once....

A rich man found a way to take his gold with him when he died. When he got to the pearly gates, Jesus asked him why he valued pavement so much as to bring it with him?

Can you imagine a place, where gold is so common that it's used as walking pavement? Obviously, the moral of the story is that things we place high value on here on Earth, aren't so valuable in Heaven. What we should place value on is things which God values, like other human beings.

Now, having said all of that, I would be pissed off if the government just took something of mine without proving that I had stolen it.

[sourcery]

Reid v. Covert, 354 U.S. 1 (1957):

Reid v. Covert, 354 U.S. 1 (1957), is a landmark case in which the United States Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution supersedes international treaties ratified by the United States Senate. According to the decision, "this Court has regularly and uniformly recognized the supremacy of the Constitution over a treaty," although the case itself was with regard to an executive agreement and the treaty has never been ruled unconstitutional.

Medellín v. Texas:

Medellín v. Texas, 552 U.S. 491 (2008) is a United States Supreme Court decision which held that while an international treaty may constitute an international commitment, it is not binding domestic law unless Congress has enacted statutes implementing it or unless the treaty itself is "self-executing"; that decisions of the International Court of Justice are not binding domestic law; and that, absent an act of Congress or Constitutional authority, the President of the United States lacks the power to enforce international treaties or decisions of the International Court of Justice.