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Family wins back 1933 $20 Double Eagle gold coins worth $80 million seized by feds
AP via NY Daily News ^ | 04/18/2015

Posted on 04/18/2015 7:29:36 AM PDT by Kid Shelleen

A family was awarded the rights to 10 rare gold coins possibly worth $80 million or more on Friday after a U.S. appeals court overturned a jury verdict.

U.S. Department of the Treasury officials insist the $20 Double Eagles were stolen from the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia before the 1933 series was melted down when the country went off the gold standard. They argued that Joan Langbord and her sons cannot lawfully own the coins, which she said she found in a family bank deposit box in 2003.

Langbord's father, jeweler Israel Switt, had dealings with the Mint in the 1930s and was twice investigated over his coin holdings. A jury in 2012 sided with the governmen

(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: california; doubleeagles; epigraphyandlanguage; godsgravesglyphs; goldcoins; israelswitt; joanlangbord; money; pennsylvania; philadelphia; saddleridgehoard; usmint
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To: Kid Shelleen

innocent until proven guity


21 posted on 04/18/2015 7:57:19 AM PDT by rolling_stone (1984)
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To: P-Marlowe; Kid Shelleen
The family should simply send a bar of 20 ounces of gold to the US Mint and call it even.

"Mommy says that every time P-Marlowe posts something like this, another government bureaucrat's head explodes."

Hat-tip to It's A Wonderful Life.

22 posted on 04/18/2015 7:59:41 AM PDT by kiryandil (Egging the battleship USS Sarah Palin from their little Progressive rowboats...)
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To: Kid Shelleen

My limited understanding of the 1993 coins are that they were never released into circulation.

In my humble opinion, the law banning the possession of gold and gold coins was and would continue to be an illegal law. But in the case of the 1933 double eagles, they were never released into circulation. By definition, that would mean none could be legally held regardless of the gold ban law.


23 posted on 04/18/2015 7:59:57 AM PDT by rigelkentaurus
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To: Kid Shelleen

An older acquaintance of mine told me that in those days when armored cars were less available than today, the government appealed to extremely prominent businessmen to help them transport the gold to Fort Knox with their companies’ armored cars and guards. Her grandfather was an industrialist who was among those chosen. Her grandfather told her that the only truck that mysteriously went missing and never showed up at Fort Knox with its gold was the one proffered by Joseph P. Kennedy.


24 posted on 04/18/2015 8:04:09 AM PDT by Albion Wilde (The greatest danger facing our world: the marriage of militant Islam with nuclear weapons.-Netanyahu)
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To: MrEdd

“Brief articles never give you as much information as you want.”

Unfortunately true.


25 posted on 04/18/2015 8:05:43 AM PDT by ifinnegan
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To: Kid Shelleen
Well what do you know. This corrupt Federal Government got its ars kicked. This communists run seizure grab is getting out of control.
26 posted on 04/18/2015 8:09:28 AM PDT by Logical me
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To: ifinnegan
I am not sure where we disagree.
You summarized it elegantly but I think it is clear the coins were stolen by someone with connections at the mint.
According to the Court of Appeals:
"the Government opted to ignore” a federal law governing seized property."
were improperly confiscated by the government in 2004

27 posted on 04/18/2015 8:09:51 AM PDT by Kid Shelleen (Beat your plowshares into swords. Let the weak say I am strong)
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To: Kid Shelleen

Thanks.


28 posted on 04/18/2015 8:12:55 AM PDT by ifinnegan
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To: All
This article gives some more details on the legal rational behind the decision.

The Langbords sued in 2006, claiming in part that the government failed to follow procedures set up in a 2000 law concerning property seized by the U.S. government.

In 2011, a federal jury in Philadelphia sided with the government, allowing the Mint to keep the coins. The government had argued that the coins were products of a crime—either stolen or otherwise concealed after they left the Mint illegally. A judge upheld the verdict in 2012.

But the appeals court overturned the lower court, ruling that the government missed a 90-day filing deadline set up under the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act of 2000.



Court Orders U.S. Mint to Return Famed Coins to Family

29 posted on 04/18/2015 8:18:02 AM PDT by Kid Shelleen (Beat your plowshares into swords. Let the weak say I am strong)
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To: Kid Shelleen

The coins were returned because the government failed to follow legal procedures?
The government busted for not following the law?
That must not apply to the Oval Office.


30 posted on 04/18/2015 8:24:09 AM PDT by Sasparilla (If you want peace, prepare for war.)
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To: djf

I haven’t heard anything about the SF find lately, but for a short time there were discussions about a possible link to an unsolved theft from the San Francisco mint ages ago. Last I heard at least some of the coins predated the theft and were worn, showing they’d been circulated (not aged in place?)and any link to the theft was discounted. Bottom line (and it’s a BIG bottom line) last I heard, they get to keep them.


31 posted on 04/18/2015 8:25:34 AM PDT by Flash Bazbeaux
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To: Kid Shelleen

So, if I say, steal your car. How long do I have to hold onto it before it becomes mine?


32 posted on 04/18/2015 8:26:44 AM PDT by Yogafist
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To: djf
Anybody know what happened to that couple in California who found like coffee cans buried near a tree on their yard FULL of gold coins? Not sure if the government tried to seize it or what...

This couple just showed the whole country that if you fine treasure buried in your back yard you should be forthright and honest and turn in the empty cans.

33 posted on 04/18/2015 8:27:49 AM PDT by Cowman
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To: kiryandil

i guess, the goons are goin’ to give back their bonuses on that caper.


34 posted on 04/18/2015 8:34:52 AM PDT by skinkinthegrass ("Any girl can be glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid." Hedy Lamarr)
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To: Kid Shelleen

Thanks for this. It clarifies things.


35 posted on 04/18/2015 8:47:12 AM PDT by ifinnegan
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To: ifinnegan

Were they proven stolen? Is there a record of when they were stolen? Is there proof they were illegally obtained? Is there a date of when they went missing? Were any of the people who possessed the coins when they were confiscated alive when the coins went missing? Can the government prove they had legal possession of the coins when they went missing? Will the government come for my early half dollars?


36 posted on 04/18/2015 8:47:48 AM PDT by duffee (Dump the Chairman of the Mississippi Republican Party, joe nosef.)
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To: Kid Shelleen

The Link goes to horse race results.


37 posted on 04/18/2015 8:47:53 AM PDT by Excellence (Marine mom since April 11, 2014)
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To: Kid Shelleen

finders keepers

losers weepers


38 posted on 04/18/2015 8:49:03 AM PDT by woofie
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To: ifinnegan

I too understood it as you say.


39 posted on 04/18/2015 8:49:53 AM PDT by AEMILIUS PAULUS
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To: Yogafist

The federal government has STOLEN at least $25 million in recent years from persons never convicted and in many case,never even alleged to have committed a crime-it is called “assest forfeiture”.The government doesn’t return that money,either.

As also said, how many of us could prove today that everything we own was legally acquired? Do you keep the receipts for every purchase you every made? Do you document every gift ever received?


40 posted on 04/18/2015 8:50:34 AM PDT by hoosierham (Freedom isn't free)
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