mystery of the Double Eagle gold coins

[sky otter]

 
if you haven't seen this,i think it lends itself to tons of conjecture on several points
en~joy the ride
The mystery of the Double Eagle gold coins
A Philadelphia family has some and the U.S. has been chasing them for 70 years. Why?
By Susan Berfield

updated 2 hours 44 minutes ago 2011-08-29T11:15:12

The 2009 Ultra High Relief Double Eagle Gold Coin, at the United States Mint in Philadelphia. The mint used digital technology to produce the newly issued coin which is a modern version of Augustus Saint-Gaudens' original 1907 Double Eagle $20 gold piece.


The most valuable coin in the world sits in the lobby of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in lower Manhattan. It's Exhibit 18E, secured in a bulletproof glass case with an alarm system and an armed guard nearby. The 1933 Double Eagle, considered one of the rarest and most beautiful coins in America, has a face value of $20 — and a market value of $7.6 million. It was among the last batch of gold coins ever minted by the U.S. government. The coins were never issued; most of the nearly 500,000 cast were melted down to bullion in 1937.

Most, but not all. Some of the coins slipped out of the Philadelphia Mint before then. No one knows for sure exactly how they got out or even how many got out. The U.S. Secret Service, responsible for protecting the nation's currency, has been pursuing them for nearly 70 years, through 13 Administrations and 12 different directors. The investigation has spanned three continents and involved some of the most famous coin collectors in the world, a confidential informant, a playboy king, and a sting operation at the Waldorf Astoria in Manhattan. It has inspired two novels, two nonfiction books, and a television documentary. And much of it has centered around a coin dealer, dead since 1990, whose shop is still open in South Philadelphia, run by his 82-year-old daughter.

"The 1933 Double Eagle is one of the most intriguing coins of all time," says Jay Brahin, an investment adviser who has been collecting coins since he was a kid in Philadelphia. "It's a freak. The coins shouldn't have been minted, but they were. They weren't meant to circulate, but some did. And why has the government pursued them so arduously? That's one of the mysteries."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44288821/ns/business-us_business/   

   

[Somamech]

Re the Image

Just goto the site we know and reply to a post there without replying and use the image hosting feature!  It's an amazing img hosting service. Been doing that for Long time. All u need to do is copy the bottom link and paste into IMG tags!

Digital coins?

Kiwis have been using their coins in oz dispensers for years lol

[sky otter]

thanks Soma..worked just fine

[zorgon]

From your link...

"The most valuable coin in the world sits in the lobby of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in lower Manhattan"

WHY?    Why does the Federal Reserve have it? The Federal Reserve is a PRIVATE bank... why are they allowed to hold this coin?

I want ANSWERS   Seriously


Family fights government over rare 'Double Eagle' gold coins

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.

They said the coins were stolen from the U.S. Mint back in 1933, and are the government's property. The Treasury Department seized the coins, and locked them away at Fort Knox. The court battle is set to kick off this week.

Family fights government over rare 'Double Eagle' gold coins

Okay so this jeweler stole them, the family inherits them, and the Feds confiscate them back... Nice



Press Release - August 11, 2005
United States Mint Recovers 10 Famed Double Eagles

WASHINGTON – The United States Mint has recovered ten more of the fabled 1933 Double Eagle gold pieces. These numismatic artifacts were illegally removed from the United States Mint at Philadelphia more than 70 years ago.

"These Double Eagles were never lawfully issued, but instead, were taken from the United States Mint at Philadelphia in an unlawful manner more than 70 years ago," said United States Mint Acting Director David Lebryk. "They are, and always have been, public property belonging to the United States. We are pleased that these 10 Double Eagles have been recovered."

To ensure that they are properly secured, the recovered 1933 Double Eagles will be held in the United States Bullion Depository at Fort Knox. The United States Department of the Treasury does not intend to monetize, issue or auction them. The United States Mint will assess the best way to use these historical artifacts, including possible public exhibits, to educate the American people.

With the assistance of the U.S. Secret Service and the Department of Justice, the United States Mint recovered the 10 gold pieces in Philadelphia in September 2004, after being approached by an attorney whose client allegedly possessed the Double Eagles. With the help of the Smithsonian Institution, the United States Mint authenticated the gold pieces on June 21, 2005, as genuine 1933 gold Double Eagles. They were produced at the United States Mint at Philadelphia in 1933, but they were never issued as coinage.

The United States Mint's Eagle gold coin was first produced in 1795 with a $10 denomination. When the United States Mint first struck $20 gold pieces in 1850, they were popularly called "Double Eagles."

About 445,500 Double Eagle gold pieces were minted in 1933. However, President Franklin Roosevelt took the United States off the gold standard in an effort to help the struggling American economy recover from the Great Depression. As a result, none of the Double Eagles was ever issued at that time; instead, all but two of the 1933 Double Eagles were ordered destroyed. However, in addition to these two, which were transferred to the Smithsonian Institution, the Government has now recovered a total of 20 specimens that were stolen from the United States Mint at Philadelphia. Nine of the 20 Double Eagles were seized by, or relinquished to, the U.S. Secret Service in the 1940s and 1950s, and were subsequently returned to the United States Mint and destroyed.

One 1933 Double Eagle surfaced in 1996 and was seized by the U.S. Secret Service. The gold piece was returned to the United States Mint, and following a legal settlement, was issued and auctioned in New York City for $7 million on July 30, 2002.

"The 2002 auction was the result of a legal settlement. At the time, the United States Mint declared that it would not monetize or sell future 1933 Double Eagles that might be recovered," said Acting Director Lebryk. "We do not intend to monetize, issue, or auction the recovered Double Eagles."

The 1933 Double Eagle obverse features "Liberty," a figure reminiscent of a Greek goddess. The image was designed by famed sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens. The reverse features a majestic eagle. The United States Mint, the world's largest coin manufacturer, produces about 13 billion coins annually for trade and commerce. The 213-year-old Federal agency, with about 2,000 employees and facilities in six locations, also makes coins for collectors and investors.

United States Mint press Release


Lady Liberty holding a torch and olive branch, backed by a glory
Designer Augustus Saint-Gaudens  Designed 1907


Bald eagle in flight, backed by a glory, with motto.
Designer Augustus Saint-Gaudens  Designed 1907

[zorgon]

The Most Valuable Coin in the World: The 1933 Double Eagle

It was stolen from the U.S. government, collected by an eccentric king, seized by the Secret Service and practically worshiped by numismatists. Though it is not much more than an inch in diameter and weights just a bit more than an ounce, the 1933 Double Eagle is the world's most valuable coin.

Unmuseum.org

1933 Double Eagle - Wikipedia

Family fights government over rare 'Double Eagle' gold coins - ATS Thread

JUDGE ISSUES RULING ON CONFISCATED 1933 DOUBLE EAGLES

A judge in Philadelphia has ruled that the federal government must return 10 extremely rare gold coins to the family of a late Center City jeweler or outline its case for keeping them in a forfeiture filing.

U.S. District Judge Legrome Davis issued the ruling Tuesday in the case of the 10 1933 "double eagle" gold coins, which experts say could fetch millions at auction. The lawyer representing the family said the coins are thought to be the most valuable gold coins in the world.

"The judge said what the government did was a violation of the Fourth and Fifth Amendments," Berke said.

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.

JUDGE ISSUES RULING ON CONFISCATED 1933 DOUBLE EAGLES

[zorgon]

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.[/ex]

http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v12n31a12.html

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

[zorgon]

Golden Grail
Few U.S. coins are rarer than the never circulated 1933 double eagle, melted down after the nation dropped the gold standard

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.

Golden Grail - Smithsonian


Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/atm-object-200806.html#ixzz1ac7EFdfU

[sky otter]

ok..part of the answer is when they sold it  they listed it as the only one..info is from first link
pieces quoted from that article below

In February 2002, the Mint announced the auction of the "fabled and elusive 1933 Double Eagle twenty dollar coin" at (BID)Sotheby's on July 30. "The storied coin has been the center of international numismatic intrigue for more than 70 years," said Mint Director Henrietta Holsman Fore in the press release. Afterward the coin would become the only 1933 Double Eagle "now or ever authorized for private ownership."

Then the publicity campaign began. Matt Lauer wore white cotton gloves to hold the coin on the Today show. The New York Times ran a large photo of it. Sotheby's, working with Stack's, produced a 56-page catalog titled The Golden Disk of 1933: Only One.

...
Except it wasn't.

Two years after the auction, Joan Langbord and her son, Roy, an entertainment executive in Manhattan, called Berke, who had represented Fenton and the Farouk coin, with startling news: They said they had found 10 1933 Double Eagles. The coins had been wrapped in tissue and plastic, put in a gray paper bag from the department store John Wanamaker — which closed in 1995 — and placed at the bottom of safe deposit box No. 442 at a Wachovia Bank in Philadelphia. Langbord had inherited the safe deposit box from her mother and said she had thought it contained only jewelry. No one in the family, she later testified, knew how the coins had gotten there. The Langbords, through Berke, declined to comment for this story, citing ongoing litigation.

....
A week later, Roy Langbord, accompanied by Berke, opened the safe deposit box and handed over the Double Eagles to the government for authentication. The coins did not come back.

....
This July, eight years after the Langbords say they found the coins, the trial to get them back began at a Philadelphia courthouse, just blocks from the family store on Jewelers Row.

......

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacqueline Romero argued that documents from the Philadelphia Mint and the Secret Service investigation of the 1940s showed that no 1933 Double Eagles legally left the Mint. And, she said, every single coin that had been found could be traced to Israel Switt. She also discussed the government's long pursuit of the coins: "Why do we care? We auctioned one off. You saw the certificate of monetization. We know how Fenton got his coin. He's not Israel Switt. The coins and bills you have in your wallets carry the full faith and credit of the U.S. government. It means something. The government protects its money from thieves and swindlers. We have to care on principle. If we don't, we are done. We are absolutely done."

...,..

After eight days of testimony, the jury found otherwise. The Langbords are expected to appeal the verdict.

source of quotes:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44288821/ns/business-us_business/

[burntheships]

Judge Says 10 Rare Gold Coins Worth $80 Million Belong to Uncle Sam

1933 Saint-Gaudens double eagle coin was originally valued at $20, however now each coin is worth millions.
This family found out the hard way, dont go to the Mint for verification! 

A judge ruled that 10 rare gold coins worth $80 million belonged to the U.S. government, not a family that had sued the U.S. Treasury, saying it had illegally seized them........


After President Theodore Roosevelt had the U.S. abandon the gold standard, most of the 445,500 double eagles that the Philadelphia Mint had struck were melted into gold bars.However, a Philadelphia Mint cashier had managed to give or sell some of them to a local coin dealer, Israel Switt.

In 2003, Switt's family, his daughter, Joan Langbord, and 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

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/judge-10-rare-gold-coins-worth-80-million/story?id=17159793#.UEkgBOl_pzB

The family said in its suit that in another seizure of the 1933 double eagle, the government split the proceeds with the owner after the coin sold for $7.59 million in 2002.

[sky otter]

bts
here's some more of the story

http://www.thelivingmoon.com/forum/index.php?topic=171.0

[burntheships]

Thanks sky!

Topics merged.