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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Michael K, post: 25618287, member: 78298&quot;]I mean 100 or 200 years from now when they don&#039;t care about it because</p><p>of the apocalypse. But they have confiscated other coins, 10 1933 gold double eagles, and this 1974 aluminum cent as mentioned.</p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;The U.S. government rightfully seized 10 of the world&#039;s most valuable gold coins from the family of a Philadelphia jeweler, a federal jury ruled Wednesday.</p><p>The government seized the 1933 &quot;Double Eagle&quot; coins after the family of Israel Switt, a prominent jeweler in the 1930s, brought them to the U.S. Mint in 2005 for authentication. The government, which claimed the coins had been stolen, filed a civil forfeiture lawsuit in 2009.</p><p>&quot;The people of the United States have been vindicated,&quot; Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacqueline Romero said after the verdict was read in Philadelphia. &quot;This was government property that was stolen 70 years ago.&quot;</p><p>The jury&#039;s verdict on the forfeiture claim allows the government to keep the coins for now. U.S. District Judge Legrome Davis will decide ownership at a later hearing.</p><p>The government minted almost $500,000 of the $20 coins in 1933, the year President Franklin D. Roosevelt took the U.S. off the gold standard. None of that year&#039;s coins entered circulation and all were ordered to be melted, according to the U.S. Mint. In 2002, a single Double Eagle sold for $7.59 million at auction.</p><p>Barry Berke, an attorney for the Langbord family, declined to comment on the verdict.</p><p>Joan Langbord, Switt&#039;s daughter, and her two sons sued in 2006 seeking to recover the coins, which were found in a family safe deposit box. The family had given the gold coins to Daniel Shaver, chief counsel for the U.S. Mint. Officials concluded that the coins were authentic and were government property, according to court records. </p><p>Davis ruled in 2009 that the U.S. had violated the Langbords&#039; constitutional rights and should file a civil forfeiture lawsuit if it wanted to keep the coins.</p><p>The government has maintained that the coins, which are now kept at Fort Knox, Ky., were stolen.</p><p>&quot;Some of the most prominent coin dealers in the nation in 1933 and 1934 were trying to get their hands on 1933 Double Eagles. They just weren&#039;t available,&quot; Romero said.</p><p>Switt was arrested for unlawfully possessing gold coins in 1934 and was interviewed by the U.S. Secret Service about the 1933 Double Eagles multiple times before his death in 1990. He claimed he had no more, the government said.</p><p>The case is Langbord v. U.S. Department of Treasury, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania.&quot;[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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