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 ...
I look forward to all the comments by my FRiends.
If I understand the case correctly someone somehow acquired (some might say pilfered) gold coins from the mint and stashed them in a deposit box. Now they are worth millions. This legal saga has been going on for years. It comes down to whether the family can legally own the coins vs the power government has to seize private property.
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...
Here’s my comment.
If the Federal government now in control of this country is so damned insistent on reclaiming those coins using an edict by FDR (my personal choice for worst President after Hussein Obama), then they maybe should GET the coins.
But they should be forced to melt each and every one of them down to the base metal and add that to this country’s reserve.
Otherwise, it is greed and I would fully expect some bureaucrat to profit from the sale of them on the open market, giving due tribute to Dear Leader of course.
Government in general has become criminals with credentials. I witnessed the IRS seize business accounts to force companies to sign contracts agreeing to do certain things that were not law. (Hire only full time regular employees rather than contractors. All of these businesses eventually went under.) In anther incident related by a CFO I knew, the FBI helped some rich idiots buy a seized boat and import cocaine using an FBI supplied crew. Then the FBI seized their assets, including a large business, a skyscraper and their homes, bank accounts and cars. The men were not prosecuted. It was for the money.
Huzzah!
your link don’t go there
Your premise is wrong I think.
These Coins were never in circulation.
The question is, can stolen property become private property.
This is universal truth right there.
Apparently the government didn’t prove they were stolen.
If theft can’t be proven, then it can’t be assumed. How many of us could prove our things are our things if the government decided to take us to court on a whim?
“Apparently the government didn’t prove they were stolen.”
To whom?
First jury or appeals judge?
Why did the appeals overturn the verdict?
That’s true! If it is just gold, then it has the value gold has.
But if they are sold as rare coins, the government has no more right to them than Tom, Dick or Harry! Or anybody else!
The only people who should profit from that would be the folks who kept them safe all these years.
Blinded by laser-armed cops – scared yet? (Demilitarizing? Not so fast! Police on buying binge...)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3280474/posts
Sounds like it just did. LOL!
The Gruberment stole it at gunpoint, and now AMAZINGLY, an appeals court ruled that the stolen property is once again, private property.
Too bad for the thieving gruberment goons...
Possibly both.
The article does not give the wording of the appeal. If the original jury was not instructed that the government had the onus of proving theft then that could have been the grounds.
Brief articles never give you as much information as you want.
Excellent! This story has been on for some time and had a number of legal issues to resolve including if the government “owned” all gold.
The family should simply send a bar of 20 ounces of gold to the US Mint and call it even.
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