Judge Says Family’s 10 Rare Gold Coins Worth $80 Million Belong to Uncle Sam
September 7th, 2012Via: Good Morning America:
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.
The 1933 Saint-Gaudens double eagle coin was originally valued at $20, but sold for as much as $7.5 million at a Sotheby’s auction in 2002, according to Courthouse News.
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, Joan Langbord, and her 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 authentication, the government seized them without compensating the family.
Mmmm … the general public will hear sound bites and not get their head around this. Possible kick start of a new ‘gold ownership policy’ in the US? As the Fed dilutes the fiat currency faster and faster; gold, silver and lead* are a few of the hedges against the coming storm.
*Ooops, the DHS, SSA and other government agencies are already buying up all the lead in many size calibers.
These people were fools to “give” these to anybody for authentication, ESPECIALLY the government: the biggest thieves in the world.
Well, that was an expensive lesson.
“When the Langbords gave the coins to the Philadelphia Mint for authentication, the government seized them without compensating the family.”
I presume the Langbords learned a Basic Gov’t 101 lesson here?
Your life, liberty, and property are never safe when the gubmint turns its Eye of Sauron in your direction.