This would have been a huge lost for the U.S. Government. A $80 Million loss! Ten of the rarest and most valuable coins in the world were almost stolen from the federal mint in Philadelphia. They would have been ended up with a coin deal who found them in his safe deposit box. However, a jury decided that the coins were stolen from the mint.
Ten of the rarest and most valuable coins in the world were almost certainly stolen from the federal mint in Philadelphia and therefore belong to the U.S. government and not heirs of a coin dealer who found them in his safe deposit box, a federal judge ruled.
The Augustus Saint-Gaudens double eagles $20 pieces were among some 445,500 struck during the Great Depression. But nearly all were pulled out of circulation within weeks as President Roosevelt ordered U.S. banks to abandon the gold standard. It was originally believed that all but a pair of the double eagles was melted down into gold bars. One of the surviving coins fell into the hands of King Farouk of Egypt, and sold for more than $7.5 million at a Sotheby’s auction in the summer of 2002.
But in 2003, three grandchildren of a coin dealer named Israel Swift found 10 if the coins in a safe deposit box after Swift’s death. It turned out the coins had been given to Swift by Philadelphia Mint cashier George McCann years ago. The coins were seized by the government when the heirs took them to the mint seeking authentication. Since then, Swift’s grandchildren, Joan, Roy and David Langbord, have been battling in court to prove they are the rightful owners of the coins.
A jury found for the government last year, and this week a federal judge agreed with the verdict. In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Legrome Davis Jr. held that, since no records showed coins being lawfully taken from the mint, they were almost certainly stolen.
