Philadelphia – The U.S. Mint seized 10 Double Eagle gold coins from 1933, among the rarest and most valuable coins in the world, that a jeweler says she turned in to determine their authenticity.
Joan Langbord plans a federal court lawsuit to try to recover them, her attorney, Barry H. Berke, said Wednesday.
Langbord found the coins among the possessions of her late father, longtime jeweler Israel Switt, who had acknowledged selling some of the coins decades ago. She now operates her father’s business.
David Lebryk, acting director of the Mint, had announced in a news release that the rare coins, which were never put in circulation, had been taken from the Mint “in an unlawful manner” in the mid-1930s and now were “recovered.”
The coins, which are so rare that their value is almost beyond calculation, are public property, he said.
Berke said Mint officials couldn’t prove the coins had been stolen, or were subject to forfeiture. But Mint officials said Thursday the Double Eagles could not have legally been taken from the Mint.
Other Double Eagle coins seized in the past were melted down.
Double Eagles were first minted in 1850 with a face value of $20. The 445,500 coins minted in 1933 were never put into circulation because the nation went off the gold standard. All the coins were ordered melted down, but a handful are believed to have survived, including two in the Smithsonian Institution.
