Saturday, July 20, 2013

Feds Seize Gold Coins Worth $80 Million from Pennsylvania Family

File Under: When you have something good going, don't go to the government to verify it.

RT reports:
A federal judge has upheld a verdict that strips a Pennsylvania family of their grandfather’s gold coins — worth an estimated $80 million — and has ordered ownership transferred to the US government.

Judge Legrome Davis of the Eastern District Court of Pennsylvania affirmed a 2011 jury decision that a box of 1933 Saint-Gaudens double eagle coins discovered by the family of Israel Switt, a deceased dealer and collector, is the property of the United States.

In the midst of the Great Depression, then-President Franklin Roosevelt ordered that America’s supply of double eagles manufactured at the Philadelphia Mint be destroyed and melted into gold bars. Of the 445,500 or so coins created, though, some managed to escape the kiln and ended up into the hands of collectors. In 2003, Switt’s family opened a safe deposit back that their grandfather kept, revealing 10 coins that turned out to be among the world’s most valuable collectables in the currency realm today.

Switt’s descendants, the Langbords, thought the coins had been gifted to their grandfather years earlier by Mint cashier George McCann and took the coins to the Mint to have their authenticity verified, but the government quickly took hold of the items and refused to relinquish the find to the family. The Langbords responded with a lawsuit that ended last year in a victory for the feds.

Because the government ordered the destruction of their entire supply of coins decades earlier, the court found that Switt’s family was illegally in possession of the stash. Even though they may had been presented to the dealer by a Philadelphia Mint staffer, Judge Davis agrees with last year’s ruling that Mr. McCann broke the law.

10 comments:

  1. So, what does the government do with such coins today? Does the government still melt them down, or will it eventually sell them in an auction?

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    1. They will probably just surrender them to the British bankers as they have done with the rest of our bullion. Have you any idea just how much it cost to raise a new born prince these days?

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  2. Reading that makes me sick to my stomach. Thanks for ruining my Saturday!

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  3. And yet Bernanke and company can steal trillions and never get questioned. Or GM walked away from 189 billion screwing bond holders. On and on. Little guy never wins.

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  4. In reading this article I had the same sickening feeling as Tom. But in recent years I've gotten used to such feelings. I well remember how America used to be. It has dramatically changed. No matter how much we close our eyes and pretend otherwise we are no longer free people.

    Obama rode into office on a wave of optimism and the promise of a new America free of civil liberty abuses while decrying the secret actions of Bush, then proved himself to be a more effective manipulator of the American people than his predecessors. His presidency has been defined by “kill lists,” the murder of civilians in secret drone strikes, the assassination of American citizens, the continued operation of Guantanamo Bay, secret courts, tapping journalists' phones, and championing of warrantless surveillance of American citizens. An Obama staffer told reporters "we are going to kill the dollars." That is nothing short of high treason! The deficit is accelerating not decelerating. Government spending on itself has far exceeded the ability of the citizens to pay for its profligate expenditures. The recent murder of Michael Hastings, among others, really highlights the sinister nature of current developments.

    Every American should google and read the seven leaflets put out by three German youth known as The White Rose, trying to bestir the German people from their slumber while the Nazi's stole their freedoms one by one. They were executed for treason. You will be amazed at the parallels to what we see now in the emerging surveillance and police state as our Constitution is steadily dismantled. You will also be inspired!

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  5. I see it as a positive. The more obvious the crime, the more people wake up. The Switt family may have had an epiphany.

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  6. The government is based on theft so why should this surprise anyone? The only thing that should be noted is how brazen the ruling thugs are these days. Blowback is gonna catch them by surprise.

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  7. i thought the govt wasn't allowed to take something from someone without proper payment in exchange?

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  8. They aren't, which is why those of us who have studied law. Know the fact that these so called honorable courts are nothing but extortionate racketeering businesses, or in short, courts full of criminals....

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  9. I just read that coin collections were supposed to be exempt from that ruling

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