Posted on 08/25/2005 9:52:28 AM PDT by LibWhacker
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 that the rare coins, which were never put in circulation, had been taken from the Mint "in an unlawful manner" in the mid-1930's and now were "recovered."
The coins, which are so rare that their value is almost beyond calculation, are public property, he said.
But Berke said Mint officials couldn't prove the coins had been stolen, or were subject to forfeiture.
In 2002, Sotheby's and numismatic firm Stack's auctioned off a 1933 Double Eagle coin for $7.59 million, the highest price ever paid for a coin. That Double Eagle, which is believed to have been part of a collection belonging to King Farouk of Egypt, surfaced when a coin dealer tried selling it to undercover Secret Service agents.
After a legal battle, the dealer was permitted to sell the coin at auction on the condition he split the proceeds with the Mint.
In its statement, the Mint said officials were still deciding what they would do with the seized coins, which are being held at Fort Knox. They said they had no plans to auction them but would consider saving "these historical artifacts" for public exhibits. Other double eagle coins seized in the past were melted down.
Double Eagles were first minted in 1850 with a face value of $20. The 445,500 coins minted in 1933 were never put into circulation because the nation went off the gold standard. All the coins were ordered melted down, but a handful are believed to have survived, including two handed over to the Smithsonian Institution.
Langbord declined to discuss how the coins might have come into the possession of her father, who operated an antiques and jewelry shop for 70 years and died in 1990 at 95.
The Mint contends Switt obtained a cache of the gold coins from his connections at the Mint just before they were to be reduced to bullion in 1937.
Switt admitted in 1944 that he had sold nine Double Eagle coins, but he was not charged in connection with those transactions, according to the Mint.
The family attorney said the coins were found recently, and Langbord and her son, Roy, notified the Mint of the discovery in September. Mint officials asked to authenticate the coins, then confiscated them after doing so, Berke said.
He contended Langbord and her son never relinquished their right to the coins.
Any more so than the value of a piece of paper?
US GOVERNMENT MINT STEALS 10 RARE GOLD COINS
If they were Rembrandt paintings stolen from the Gardiner Museum and some pawnshop dealer brought them in to be verified, no one here would claim that the pawnbroker was the legitimate owner.
I tend to side with the government on this one. As I understand it, these coins were never released into circulation. Anyone who owns one has obtained them through a chain that involves some sort of illegality.
A thief cannot give a customer any better title to property than the thief held.
As a kid I used to collect coins, and they told me that at one time they had a few gold coins but they were confiscated (their words were "stolen") by the government inspectors.
"Hello, we're from the government and we're here to help."
It's not my opinion, it's the law of the land. Would it have been more honorable to send in jackbooted thugs with sub-machine guns to knock the doors down? That's how stolen property is most often recovered by the government.
Very interesting. I didn't know about that agreement though I remember reading that at first the mint wanted to confiscate the coin and then some deal had been struck.
It should be noted that there are other rare coins that have made their way out of the mint in questionable ways. The 1913 Liberty nickel comes to mind. Also some of the 1804 dollars. There are others but I am not able to recall them at the moment.
Morons! They should have shipped them to London and sold them there.
No, it should read "US GOVERNMENT MINT RECOVERS 10 STOLEN GOLD COINS"
Value "is what it is": Value.
It's worth is determined by the "value" that people place upon it. Some place a little, others place a lot. Some have no need, thus no "value", for gold.
Same principle with oil,water or oxygen.
This story is no different than a war trophy NFA weapon being found in the attic. Once contraband always contraband to the gubermint.
The first article I ever posted on FR, about 8 years ago, was FDR's executive order ordering the confiscation of gold. Amazing reading. Talk about a fascist in socialist clothing. I'm amazed that the debunking of FDR hasn't reached more corners of the universe than it has.
The war trophy analogy is not correct. Owning full auto machine guns is illegal. Owning any an all manner of gold coins is not. US Citizens were required to turn in gold coins in 1933. Many did not. Many coins were outside the USA and thus outside the jurisdiction of FedGov. When citizen ownership of gold was permitted again (Nixon?) it again became legal to own all years and types of gold coins. For instance my grandmother gave me a 1898 $2 piece before she passed. That was legal. It may have been illegal for her to hold it (or not, because there was an exception for rare coins in collections and obviously even in '33 and 1898 piece was old, and obviously she didn't try to spend it in the intervening 50 years :-) but today it is totally legal to own.
I think the argument here is that none of these were ever placed in circulation so they are stolen. But that says that the Treasury dept's 70 year old records are more accurate than the facts on the ground (ie: this lady has 10 of them). It's a corner case.
So if you're a king of Egypt the mint doesn't "seize" the coins, just splits the profits, but if you're an American citizen then those coins belong to the Mint.
The government has already allowed others who have the coins to sell them (including, apparently, her father). What's the difference now?
Yes, the "Kelo Rate".
Never trust a government agency. Period.
they should have only given up one coin to authentic. Why would they trust the mint with all the coins or anyone else, surely they knew some of the coin's history before turning them over.
Absolutely correct. However, none of them were documented as having been stolen. These were, by Special Agent George Drescher of the Secret Service, in the Forties.
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