1933 St. Gaudens News

Thanks, for the correct info. That was enough to prompt me to checkout original, and updated information on these coins.

 

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Well, what would they have done otherwise?

Try to sell all 10 on the black coin market? Eventually someone in one of those transactions would get sloppy somewhere, say too much to the wrong person, and everyone involved would be in legal trouble.

Maybe they could've just sat on all 10 forever and ever until the end of time, but what would've been the point? Owning something you can't show off, you can't sell, and you have to live in fear of even having under your roof?

Though at the end of the day I've always felt this topic was ridiculous. We're talking about a legal battle over the right to own some shiny objects that the government was going to melt anyway 84 years ago. Just shrug your shoulders and let the rest hit the market.

 

You say this as if they just walked out in someone's pocket. The belief is that they were exchanged for double eagles of a different date whether legally at the cashiers window or surreptitiously with a mint employee. Either way, the mint was not shorted any gold. The government, in my mind, has now taken 10 double eagles from the Langbord family without proving that they were stolen.

 

You're right, if the government is seen letting them slip through, people will expect them to let other coins through. The government should put these in chocolate bars and ship them out like Willy Wonka.

 

I don't get it.... they were made, only 14, to be exchanged for other double eagles? Or am I way off track?

 

A quantity was made prior to the presidential ruling that no person could own gold. Then a quantity of 1933 double eagles were melted. Some escaped melting.
At least that is my understanding. If I am in error feel free to correct this assumption.

 

They were made, not officially released and then all were supposed to have been melted. There is a possibility that the cashier traded some damaged coins for good coins and could have taken 1933s and issued them. The Langbord relative, I want to say Ira Switt, was a coin dealer and could have had an "arrangement" with a mint employee to get newly minted coins each year. Either way, he still would have paid for the coins with gold or paper money rather than stolen them. I'm not convinced one way or the other whether they were obtained legally or illegally which is why I don't think it's right that the family isn't compensated in some way. That said, they were idiots for turning over all of them to the government and asking what they thought should be done.

 

Right it was Switt. he had a jewelry shop close by the mint. Rumor has it he had several other 1933s that he sold. He put 10 in a safe deposit box where the family discovered them much later [supposedly].

 

If they had gotten nine offshore in suitable countries and then submitted one to the US government, there would have been all sorts of possibilities, including a negotiated settlement with the US government. There are some very wealthy collectors of US coins in other countries too. Some wealthy US collectors travel overseas a lot and probably wouldn't mind housing part of their collection overseas. As far as them being shiny baubles that the government should have melted down, you could say that about all pattern coins, the 1913 liberty nickels, Zerbe dollars, and a number of other coins. Should they all go into the pot?

There are constant lawsuits over our prized shiny objects, including some others discussed in this forum, like Heritage vs Stiel. The Langbord case is just the currently prominent case.

Cal

 

Sometimes in life you just have to own things and STFU about them. Obviously the Langbords with the lousy advice of their legal counsel screwed the pooch by not planning accordingly. As a poster stated above, if they insisted on "authentication" they could have sacrificed one of the coins whilst taking the other nine to say a Cayman Islands safe deposit box.

The big winner in this case is the Langbords loser attorney who is owed millions but lost the case.

 

So what was the purpose of making them? A test run? And instead of being melted, possibly a cashier exchanged those for other gold coins and here we are today?

 

Not a test run, just standard bureaucracy at work. The executive branch decided to recall the gold but didn't tell the mint to stop making gold coins. So after the mint made their run of millions of 1933 double eagles they were told to melt them back down. Because of the timing, according to mint records no 1933s were officially released but the records weren't as meticulous as the government claims.

 

Look at the audits of the gold rooms at the San Francisco mint during the late 19th century and early 20th century - no wonder people lost their jobs.

 

So it's safe to say a employee insider kept 14 for himself and then possibly traded them to a cashier?

 

I don't know about that.

 

The coins should be split between both parties. The woman sent in all 10 of them, and for her honesty, the govt bleeped her.

The woman's father (who had the coins originally) was a shady character but it was very possible (maybe even likely) that he aquired the coins LEGALLY via a mint swap.

 

I honestly don’t see the point of starting this discussion again. Whatever one thinks, the question of ownership has been decided by the courts. Period. End of story.

 

I saw two of them at the "World's Fair of Money" They were quite the display, Many an officer on watch, seemed to be the place that conversation started, I made it back to the display a few times, I am Pretty sure it had to do with the 74'D aluminum Lincoln on display.

 

I believe they will eventually get the coins back. Probably a split between the Langbords and the Treasury.

Win-win, and would be a great incentive for the coin hobby and the Treasury's Mint program.

 

Am I missing something here? The case, is over with. The government won. The coins belong to the government, period. The Langbords are entitled to nothing and will get nothing.

The case has gone all the way to the Supreme Court, which declined to hear the Langbords’ appeal.

Read the entire thread.