Langbord-Switt 1933 Double Eagle Case

The Langbord Familys' mistake was returning them to the mint.........I can't believe anyone could be so naive as to feel the coins would be authenticated and then returned to them.

 

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Shoot, some of them even used a BAR........

 

Naive perhaps. More likely arrogant.

 

Most likely stupid arrogance..........

 

So, I always wondered what a gander was... turns out, it's a male goose. So, the saying is what's good for any random goose must be good for any random subset of goose. That actually makes sense. It's like saying "If all letters have sounds, then all consonants have sounds."

[edited - "unrelated" political comments removed]

As for this case... I think it differs from the other pattern coin situations, as this case had a clearly defined chain of custody. Either the coin belongs to the US government or it doesn't. If it does, then it's back with its rightful owner. If it doesn't, then, as baseball21 insists, the government can, at its option, return equivalent weight in metals or dollar value of the underlying commodities... or charge the family with counterfeiting.

Now, that said, the question becomes: Did the original possessor from the family know that the coin was stolen? If so, did they tell the family how the coin was acquired? If there's enough folklore, it's entirely possible that an argument can be made that the family would be guilty of willful possession of stolen goods.

 

Once again, I agree with you.

 

I believe he (Switt) played a clever angle.........the coins were allegedly bought from the mint cashier, who had them in his/her till. How they got there is of no concern to Switt. I think he bought them free and clear.

If it were me, opening a safe deposit box on numerous occasions, I would have discovered the coins right off. How the old girl overlooked numerous twenty dollar gold pieces is beyond me......under a scarf........you never looked under the scarf? Selectively stupid.

 

Basically for one of two reasons... Either the individual:

A) Stole from the government. When one misuses government assets or removes them without proper release, that's stealing. It's that simple. If one replaces the item later, that might garner sympathy from a jury or judge, but it won't change the fact that the items were stolen. If you're saying swapped, then you're making the argument of why would you care if someone swapped out a forgery of art for a master original... You can answer that for yourself.

B) Borrowed without permission. There are many states and municipalities with "joy riding" laws on the books. This is to cover those times when someone takes a car with full intent of returning it. It's a lesser crime, but a crime nonetheless. This covers those situations where it's a pure commodity swap.

 

We all were, just as if I illegally converted government property to my use. Government employees are regularly prosecuted for this. It's the reason I have my job. Dozens of public employees were caught with their hands in the cookie jar and were prosecuted. They needed to be replaced. I was hired to do that. The idea that because you have heirs to benefit someday and you have an insider deal with a mint employee somehow makes it all okay is repugnant to me. Every aspect of this was criminal, from McCann to Switt to Langford. All of it!

 

A duly empaneled federal court jury (sole trier of fact in our system) rejected any and all ideas that the transaction was legal or defensible. Coins never issued for circulation are not available for swapping.

 

I just see a guy tryin' to make a few bucks.........

 

And I see a serial wanton criminal, several them in fact. In today's law, this would be a RICO case. I also see a shyster lawyer too bid and bad for his own best interests - Langford's lawyer, who had just negotiated the Fenton/Farouk settlement.

 

But they were in the mint till......available for purchase on a given day.

 

Shades of Eliot Ness...........

 

Not at all, they were being melted for the gold content the gold weight was right. If they were going to auction them off that would be a different story but they weren't they just wanted the metal.

From the governments standpoint it was, they just weighed the gold and melted it. A 33 was worth the same to them as any other date at that time

 

This is simply not factually true!!! The 1933 $20's were NEVER "in the till". They were in the custody of McCann, but no gold was "in the till" after the Roosevelt order of March 6. The custody of McCann covered things other than "the till" including the assay pieces.

 

No we weren't. Very few if any of us were even alive at that time. Even if someone was alive then they weren't impacted in anyway. The gold weight was right therefor the only lost tax dollars were the money spent chasing them down and the lost revenue their sales would have brought.

Unless they know the right people then they can do anything and it's fine. The gold was replaced though which was what the government wanted. The history of what to go after and what not to is far to inconsistent

 

The Langbords were stupid......they should have sold their (so called ill gotten gains) on the black market. Rumors have it that other '33's are out there being traded privately.

 

Not what I heard/read........

 

Forgery has no s/l. There are others, but not a whole hell of a lot.