Family fights government over rare 'Double Eagle' gold coins

Family fights government over rare 'Double Eagle' gold coins

news.yahoo.com

A jeweler's heirs are fighting the United States government for the right to keep a batch of rare and valuable "Double Eagle" $20 coins that date back to the Franklin Roosevelt administration. It's just the latest coin controversy to make headlines.

Philadelphian Joan Langbord and her sons say they found the 10 coins in 2003 in a bank deposit box kept by Langbord's father, Israel Switt, a jeweler who died in 1990. But when they tried to have the haul authenticated by the U.S. Treasury, the feds, um, flipped.

(visit the link for the full news article)


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There is gold in Fort Knox!!!!!!!!!!!!!

At least 80 million dollars of rare Double Eagles $20 dollar coins.

The government says they were stolen from the mint during the Roosevelt administration. Another source I found said Switt was never charged with theft because the statue of limitation had run out.

Finder keepers, losers weepers!!! Not in this case.





news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

They HATE it when the general populace might have some gold they don't know about!

Interesting as your article was, i must say i was surprised at the further link to common US modern coins that are semi valuable.
Thanks for the link, and check it out if you havent already its listed in the article you linked....
The Silver market is whats of interest to me lately, and im wondering when they will make ownership of that illegal as well......
lately i am paying 25$ for an american silver dollar.....+/- any time i can afford to put one.away.

Looks like the family has a good case considering previous government action.

The Landbords' suit noted that in the previous seizure of another 1933 double eagle, the government split the proceeds with the owner after the coin sold for a record $7.59 million at a 2002 auction. The suit also noted that the government allowed King Farouk of Egypt to own and export a 1933 double eagle in 1944 without questioning how it came into circulation.

www.coinbooks.org...

The idiots GAVE obamas starving government 80 million in rare gold coins and they want my sympathy?...Those things are locked in Ft Knox and will never see the light of day again....what kind of dummy gives the government 80 million in gold and actually expects them to act right>,,,talk about mental

From the link...

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.

www.coinbooks.org...

So it appears that Switt was involved in the theft, but they never made it stick... and the statute of limitations had run out

Interesting case

Originally posted by stirling
lately i am paying 25$ for an american silver dollar.....+/- any time i can afford to put one.away.

I guess I should round up all my gold and silver and send it to the refinery. Have bags of silver quarters, mostly Canadian. Might be worth something these days

reply to post by jam321


funny, i was just reading an old smithsonian with an article about this last night. Apparently this is actually been in litigation for several years.

www.smithsonianmag.com...

At the nation's Mints in 1933, gold coins were melted down and converted into ingots. According to Alison Frankel, author of Double Eagle: The Epic Story of the World's Most Valuable Coin, George McCann, a laborer at the Philadephia Mint, seems to have succumbed to a temptation—just as the last of the uncirculated 1933 double eagles were headed to the melting chamber. "There are many instances," says Frankel, "of people pocketing coins that are about to become rare." Only nine days later, after 2,000-degree fires had turned most of Saint-Gaudens' masterpieces into mush, a Philadelphia jeweler, Izzy Switt, would sell one double eagle, almost certainly obtained from McCann, to a coin collector.


...

At the time, this coin and the Smithsonian's pair were thought to be the only 1933 double eagles. But then, in August 2005, says Doty, "ten more surfaced." The owner: none other than Philadelphia jeweler Izzy Switt's daughter. The federal government wants those coins back. Lawsuits are pending.

Read more: www.smithsonianmag.com...
Read more: www.smithsonianmag.com...

Originally posted by jam321
Looks like the family has a good case considering previous government action.

The Landbords' suit noted that in the previous seizure of another 1933 double eagle, the government split the proceeds with the owner after the coin sold for a record $7.59 million at a 2002 auction. The suit also noted that the government allowed King Farouk of Egypt to own and export a 1933 double eagle in 1944 without questioning how it came into circulation.

www.coinbooks.org...

Not really comparable, though. The collector in question had multiple people between himself the person who likely stole the coins. The Switts have been obviously holding these for decades. The connection to the original theft is clear.

reply to post by incrediblelousminds

The connection to the original theft is clear.

Dead witnesses won't help the case. Also, statue of limitation ran out. Theft would have to be proven in a court of law wouldn't it?

It's an interesting case. I found it interesting that in one of those articles the government was requesting the court to declare that all 1933 double Eagle $20 coins are sole property of the United States Government. Is there a possibility that there is a loophole somewhere?

Why the big deal about some coins minted 73 yrs ago. Surely the government is not that desperate for gold or there value at auction. Considering the amount of money being wasted in Iraq, Afghanistan and now Libya.

Also the story goes that the coins were legal tender for 3 weeks in March till the president signed the executive order in April.

So my question is what is the importance of these coins the the government would spend 73 years tracking them all down?

the fedt doesn't want that gold circulating they were supposed to get all of it,

Originally posted by greenfruit
Why the big deal about some coins minted 73 yrs ago. Surely the government is not that desperate for gold or there value at auction. Considering the amount of money being wasted in Iraq, Afghanistan and now Libya.

Also the story goes that the coins were legal tender for 3 weeks in March till the president signed the executive order in April.

So my question is what is the importance of these coins the the government would spend 73 years tracking them all down?

I'm not sure you can say they have spent much time 'tracking ' anything down. But when these few HAVE surfaced, they take notice. And action. They were, at one point, stolen.

reply to post by incrediblelousminds

They were, at one point, stolen.

You keep saying this and I have to ask.

Has the government ever filed a report claiming they were stolen?

you got my curiosity on this.

Originally posted by jam321
reply to post by incrediblelousminds

 

They were, at one point, stolen.

You keep saying this and I have to ask.

Has the government ever filed a report claiming they were stolen?

you got my curiosity on this.

I am basing that on the info in the article i linked to that says none of these were ever released to the public, and names one specific mint worker who was pinned with stealing a handful and selling them to the jeweler in question.

case closed owners lose GOV wins news.yahoo.com... from the link

It's a case that combines history and mystery--and very valuable gold coins. The stakes were certainly high: One of these rare $20 pieces sold for a record $7.59 million in 2002.

Here's the story. A jury decided that a Philadelphia woman, Joan Langbord, who found the coins in her father's bank deposit box, never should have owned them, and that the U.S. government was right to take them back.

and so the GOV did, the coins are at Fort Knox

Originally posted by bekod
case closed owners lose GOV wins news.yahoo.com... from the link

It's a case that combines history and mystery--and very valuable gold coins. The stakes were certainly high: One of these rare $20 pieces sold for a record $7.59 million in 2002.

Here's the story. A jury decided that a Philadelphia woman, Joan Langbord, who found the coins in her father's bank deposit box, never should have owned them, and that the U.S. government was right to take them back.

and so the GOV did, the coins are at Fort Knox

Which in this case is good as the coins were the property of the government.

If someone stole my things I would surely like them back.

How do we 'know' the coins were never released? The word of the Government?

My not so trusting mind says that the double eagles 'were' released to the people in january, they sold like hotcakes to the people because of the lack of faith in the paper money the treasury took money in exchange for them, then in April Executive Order No. 6073 was issued and they got them back.

Nice scam.

reply to post by VforVendettea


Interesting theory. Did 'they' also scrub all memory and record of anyone ever 'owning' one of those coins that you think were held by the general public?