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Mint Confiscates Double Eagle Gold Coins
from Dealer Seeking View on Authenticity
By The Associated Press
via Newsday, Garden City, L.I., New York
Thursday, August 25, 2005
http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-rare-
coins,0,2382641.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines
PHILADELPHIA -- The U.S. Mint seized 10 Double Eagle gold coins from
1933, among the rarest and most valuable coins in the world, that a
jeweler says she turned in to determine their authenticity.
Joan S. Langbord plans a federal court lawsuit to try to recover
them, her attorney, Barry H. Berke, said Wednesday. Langbord found
the coins among the possessions of her late father, longtime jeweler
Israel Switt, who had acknowledged selling some of the coins decades
ago. She now operates her father's business.
David Lebryk, acting director of the Mint, had announced in a news
release that the rare coins, which were never put in circulation,
had been taken from the Mint "in an unlawful manner" in the mid-
1930s and now were "recovered."
The coins, which are so rare that their value is almost beyond
calculation, are public property, he said.
Berke said Mint officials couldn't prove the coins had been stolen,
or were subject to forfeiture. But Mint officials said Thursday the
double eagles could not have legally been taken from the Mint.
In 2002, Sotheby's and numismatic firm Stack's auctioned off a 1933
Double Eagle coin for $7.59 million, the highest price ever paid for
a coin. That Double Eagle, believed to have been part of a
collection belonging to King Farouk of Egypt, surfaced when a coin
dealer tried selling it to undercover Secret Service agents.
After a legal battle, the dealer was permitted to sell the coin at
auction on the condition he split the proceeds with the Mint. One of
the terms of the settlement was that it would set no precedent for
any future double eagle that appeared.
In its statement, the Mint said officials were still deciding what
they would do with the seized coins, which are being held at Fort
Knox. They said they had no plans to auction them but would consider
saving "these historical artifacts" for public exhibits. Other
double eagle coins seized in the past were melted down.
Double Eagles were first minted in 1850 with a face value of $20.
The 445,500 coins minted in 1933 were never put into circulation
because the nation went off the gold standard. All the coins were
ordered melted down, but a handful are believed to have survived,
including two handed over to the Smithsonian Institution.
Langbord declined to discuss how the coins might have wound up with
her father, who operated an antiques and jewelry shop for 70 years
and died in 1990 at 95.
The Mint contends Switt obtained a cache of the gold coins from his
connections at the Mint just before they were to be reduced to
bullion in 1937.
Switt admitted in 1944 that he had sold nine Double Eagle coins, but
he was not charged in connection with those transactions, according
to the Mint.
The family attorney said the coins were found recently, and Langbord
and her son, Roy, notified the Mint of the discovery in September.
Mint officials asked to authenticate the coins, then confiscated
them after doing so, Berke said.
He contended Langbord and her son never relinquished their right to
the coins.
But Mint officials said Thursday that Berke was told from the
beginning that the coins would not be returned because they were the
government's property.
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----------------------------------------------------
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