Posted on 09/07/2012 5:47:04 AM PDT by shove_it
[...]
In 2003, Switt's family, Joan Langbord, and her two grandsons, drilled opened a safety deposit box that had belonged to him and found the 10 coins. When the Langbords gave the coins to the Philadelphia Mint for authentification, the government seized them without compensating the family.
The Langbords sued, saying the coins belonged to them. In 2011, a jury decided that the coins belonged to the government, but the family appealed. Last week, Judge Legrome Davis of the Eastern District Court of Pennsylvania, affirmed that decision, saying "the coins in question were not lawfully removed from the United States Mint."
[...]
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
This may not be the story I was thinking of, then. The one I was thinking of was the coins that were never released to the public, yet someone had them. It means they were stolen property and could be recovered.
Sherman and the first urban renewal program. Just think of all the jobs created. Why....the GDP probably rose a full point.
“The original plan, mentioned in the court filings I believe, was to display them for the public at the Mint.”
That would be good. They’re beautiful coins. It would motivate me to visit the mint.
From the book “Double Eagle”:
“The 1940s investigators concluded that all of the Double Eagles that got out of the Mint had passed through the hands of a Philadelphia jeweler named Israel Switt. Though the lead Secret Service investigator pressed for charges to be brought against Switt, the Philadelphia U.S. attorney said the statute of limitations had expired. Switt was never prosecuted for the theft of the coins from the Mint.
In 2005—after the auction of the $7.69 million coin—Switt’s daughter and grandson miraculously “found” 10 1933 Double Eagles in a safe deposit box that had belonged to Switt. Switt’s grandson, a law school graduate named Roy Langbord, hired Berke to figure out how to keep the coins in the family’s possession, even though the government maintained they were contraband that had been stolen from the Mint.
Berke’s canny strategy was to turn the coins over to the government, but only for purposes of authentication. Then when the government refused to give the coins back—as Berke surely knew it would—he sued, claiming the coins had been illegally seized from the Langbords. And though assistant U.S. attorneys in Philadelphia argued that the Langbord family had unclean hands, Judge Davis ruled that the Langbords’ constitutional protections had been violated. Now the burden of proof lies on the government, which must establish that the Langbord coins were stolen—even though everyone connected with the coins’ disappearance from the Mint and the initial investigation of the alleged theft is long dead.”
http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v12n31a12.html
After reading the article, as much as it sucks for the family, the judge got this one right. The coins were STOLEN, and that is all that matters here.
The fact that the victim here was the Government and that it was and will be now a travesty if these coins are destroyed has nothing to do with whether or not the judge ruled correctly — he did.
Turn this around and make these a private item — Money, art work, coins, vintage car, jewelry - take your pick. if that item is STOLEN from you and then said item is subsequently sold by the thief to a third party the item is still YOUR PROPERTY.
The same principle applies here, the coins are still the PROPERTY of the U.S. Government.
Jackson and Polk were both Tennesseans. Plus, Tennessee voted against Al Gore, thus preventing the USA from getting one of the Worst Democrat presidents. :)
Unlikely. In an earlier case involving a '33 Double Eagle (several other Double Eagles have already been seized by the U.S. Government, almost all of which have a proven provenance through Israel Switt) the Government signed an agreement that it would never issue any '33 Double Eagle.
Well, there was certainly low unemployment in the minority demographic at the time......
I probably misunderstand the phrase “statute of limitations”, but wouldn’t that apply here?
But they lacked “upward mobility”.
I thought the issues was two-fold?
#1 None of these coins were legally in circulation. And since they were never legally in circulation they effectively belong to the government.
#2 These coins were illegally obtained.
Dolly Parton and Davy Crockett (another good Demcorat) were from Tennessee too. Five good reasons to like the Volunteer State.
This ranks the same as one of the aluminum pennies the mint struck and distributed samples to Congress, some of which were (unsurprisingly) stolen. Since they were never issued, any such coin in the wild must have been stolen.
you’re correct, they were never legally in circulation.
The owners still had many other options to verify their worth, and sell them on the open market.
Bringing them to the mint was about the ONLY way to lose them.
Which of your posessions would YOU ask the federal gov’t appraise?
The “proof” is that another “...sold for as much as $7.5 million at a Sotheby’s auction in 2002”
And the fed’s never went after that one.
Yes. My comments are not about what they should have done. Rather, they are what the rest of us can learn from what happened to them.
How would anyone have known? I confess that if there was no way to know, I would take ONE coin to them and present it as the only one I have.
That answer is NONE. :)
Seems that the Langbords hired the wrong lawyer.
These coins could have easily been authenticated based on the federal investigation of Grandpa Switt. The federal government had long since determined that all double eagles that escaped the Philadelphia mint did so through the hands of Israel Switt.
They should have sold them off privately instead of seeking headlines.
Yup. A REAL costly mistake.
Yu got that right. Of course this isn’t a surprise .
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