It's not quite the ones you might expect either. I have seen the two Smithsonian coins. These are not the ones. I have seen the "legal one", the Fenton/Farouk specimen. Not that one either. I have seen the one on display last year at Denver. I'm not sure which one that is. This new display will contain TWO of the "Langbord" specimens, and the one that was voluntarily surrendered to the Mint by an anonymous owner just a few months ago. You needn't have worried, folkies. By winning the Langbord case, the Mint has decided that "We The People" owning them means we get FAR superior access to them than in the status quo ante. Buuuuuut, you might need to get on at least a train.
Yes year and a half old thread, here are two links about the 21 first piece surrendered in 2018 https://www.coinworld.com/news/precious-metals/extant-1933-double-eagle-already-in-mint-custody.html https://www.coinworld.com/news/precious-metals/surrendered-1933-double-eagle-mystery-coin.html
Yawn. Does the mint really think they are doing us favors by pushing these things in our collective faces? They are the products of a long running vendetta by Washington bureaucrats who have wasted millions in the taxpayers’ money to recover a bunch coins that melted for several thousand.
It's a joke that the U.S. Mint is worried about 1933 DE's, while the Chinese flood the country with counterfeit numismatics. I hope that the Treasury Secretary Mnuchin and President Trump will tell the U.S. Mint to give back the coins to their rightful owners. This whole pile of garbage is a result of FDR's illegal confiscation of gold; if not for the Export License, the government would be telling us that the Farouk Coin was also "stolen" and belonged to them.
Yeah, you'd think they'd be staples at the big national coin shows like FUN. Instead, they have them at Fort Knox under lock and key. Way to promote the hobby, idiots. Hmmm....Fort Knox ? Didn't a guy named Goldfinger once..... Freaking ridiculous. They were actually sending the Secret Service around in 1944 to find the damn coin with the U.S. at war. Can you imagine what might have happened had things turned out differently ? JOINT CHIEFS: "Mr. President, I'm afraid we have good news and bad news." FDR: "Give me the bad news first." JOINT CHIEFS: "We've suffered major reversals in Europe and the Pacific theaters. Hitler and Tojo are on the march. We're probably going to lose this war." FDR: "Oh My God !!!...Unreal.....quick, give me the GOOD news !!!" JOINT CHIEFS: "We have recovered Izzy Switt's 1933 Double Eagle. SOB will never get another one from the Philly mint."
I might add that the Government would have collected many thousands in income taxes when these coins were traded from one hand to another. Instead it wasted money to get them back. Might I point to the 1913 Liberty Nickel which got out of the mint under suspicious circumstances. Oh yea, I forgot. Those things were not made of gold, which FDR decided was off limits to Americans from 1933 until 1976. It should be pointed out that the Government created a windfall for itself when it artificially raised the price from $20.67 to $35 an ounce.
I too like Kurt, a bit outspoken, cantankerous, self centered, arrogant, and overboard at times, but other than that, a very knowledgeable guy who put forth quite an interesting subject at times.
They felt they needed that. Even though not directly convertible the paper money still had some gold backing. Due to the depression the government needed to do a lot of spending which meant the need for more paper money. Nearly doubling the value of gold meant they could back twice as much paper and the high price we offered meant more gold flowed into the government coffers which meant even more paper could be backed and issued.