In her book on the Fenton 1933 Double Eagle, Alison Frankel mentions that “emergency banking legisla

On July 7th, at the U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, a trial began regarding the fate of ten 1933 Double Eagles cheap sea world tickets ($20 gold coins). The U.S. Treasury cheap sea world tickets Department is pitted against the Switt-Langbord family. This trail has implications that go beyond the fate of these ten coins. In what circumstances should the Federal Government be enabled to seize rare coins from private citizens?
The Federal Government seized ten 1933 Double Eagles that the Switt-Langbord family held for many decades and had voluntarily shown to the U.S. Treasury Department in 2004. In 2006, the Switt-Langbord family sued the U.S. Treasury cheap sea world tickets Department. They are demanding that these ten coins be returned. The trial is currently in progress.
In 1996, the U.S. Treasury Department cheap sea world tickets seized cheap sea world tickets a 1933 Double Eagle from Stephen Fenton , a British dealer. In 2001 or early 2002, the Treasury Department cheap sea world tickets and Fenton, through their respective lawyers, cheap sea world tickets negotiated. The deal stipulated that this 1933 Double Eagle was to be auctioned, and after deducting a commission for an auction firm, the proceeds cheap sea world tickets would be split between the U.S. Treasury and Fenton. On July 30, 2002, Sotheby cheap sea world tickets s, in partnership with Stack s, sold the Fenton 1933 Double Eagle for $7,590,020, which remains an auction record for a coin. ( Please see my article on coins that are worth more than $2 million each .)
During much of the 20th century, cheap sea world tickets Switt was a dealer in Philadelphia. At the auction on July 30, 2002, bidders were unaware that Izzy Switt s family had ten 1933 Double Eagles. Such a possibility, though, cheap sea world tickets could very apparently be inferred from David Tripp s book, which was published in 2005. Another privately held 1933 Double Eagle is mentioned in Tripp s book, and is pictured. In 2002, Armen Vartian , a well known lawyer for coin dealers, wrote that he had heard rumors from reliable sources of other privately held 1933 Double Eagles existing. Furthermore, QDB has written about reports of others existing. No one really knows how many are around. Two 1933 Double Eagles are in the Smithsonian.
In the 1940s, the U.S. Treasury Department seized or successfully demanded the forfeiture of several 1933 Double Eagles from collectors and dealers. Secret Service agents and other government employees devoted a considerable amount of time to pursuing 1933 Double Eagles.
"It is unbelievable to me how much the government has spent on this," exclaims Dr. Steven Duckor . "It is ludicrous for the government to be spending this much time, effort and money in the 1940s, from 1996 to 2002, and now in the Langbord case. The government should spend money on more important priorities," in Duckor s view. "It would be okay to make a deal like they did last time. I would not mind some type of deal." Dr. Duckor is an expert in Saint Gaudens Double Eagles. Among living collectors who reveal cheap sea world tickets their names, he is probably the most sophisticated and widely respected.
Suppose that the U.S. Government prevails in this case. Will other coins or patterns be seized as well? Should owners of 19th century U.S. coins be worried? Should the U.S. Treasury Department have the option of seizing cheap sea world tickets coins that are decades old, and widely accepted, from collectors? What are the implications of this trial for the coin collecting community?
Those who argue that all currently existing 1933 Double Eagles were stolen point to the fact that there are not surviving records that specify formal releases cheap sea world tickets of 1933 Double Eagles in specific shipments or to particular individuals over the counter at the Philadelphia Mint. Indeed, surviving Mint Cashier s records do not include entries for transactions of 1933 Double Eagles. Before discussing this point, it makes sense to briefly review the circumstances surrounding the production of 1933 Double Eagles.
The policies of President Franklin Roosevelt are pertinent to 1933 Double Eagles. During most of U.S. history, a newly elected or re-elected President was inaugurated in March, not January. Franklin D. Roosevelt was inaugurated on March 4, 1933. Afterwards, the U.S. Constitution was amended to require that inaugurations occur on Jan. 20th.
"On March 6, 1933, President Roosevelt issued Proclamation 2039, an order which closed all banks on this day," Q. David Bowers writes in his book on Double Eagles. cheap sea world tickets "Many institutions went into receivership or were acquired at bargain sales by their competitors" (QDB, "Double Eagle Gold Coins," Whitman, 2004, p. 277). There was a banking crisis.
In her book on the Fenton 1933 Double Eagle, Alison Frankel mentions that "emergency cheap sea world tickets banking legislation passed three days later [on March 9th]" which prevented banks from paying out or exporting gold (Double Eagle, W. W. Norton, NY, 2006, p. 46). The use of paper money was encouraged. Robert W. Julian notes, though, that "the Federal cheap sea world tickets Reserve System was given the authority, cheap sea world tickets about March 13th, to pay out gold to banks under their jurisdiction" ( ANS, Groves Lecture, 2002 ).
On April 5, President Roosevelt issued an executive order requiring private citizens to turn in their respective gold by May 1st. Coins that were valued by collectors were exempt from this order. The exemption of collector cheap sea world tickets coins was reinforced in 1934 with terms that made clear that gold coins that are "of recognized special value to collectors" cheap sea world tickets could be legally held. Indeed, these could be bought, sold or otherwise traded.
Frankel cheap sea world tickets writes, "An Assistant Treasury Secretary telegraphed to the Mint on March 7 that it was, in fact, authorized to exchange gold coins or bars in exchange for bullion received. " Earlier in the trial, David Tripp, a paid witness for the U.S. Treasury Department, stated that this telegram is an "orphan." Later, under cross-examination, Tripp admitted that Tripp himself assigned the term "orphan" to this document. It does make clear that gold coins could be legally exchanged, and thus released from the U.S. Mint, after March 7th and before as well.
Last week at the trial, Barry Berke, the primary attorney for the Switt-Langbord cheap sea world tickets family, pointed out that there are no surviving records of gold for gold exchanges in the 1930s, though these were perfectly allowable and almost certainly did occur. ( See Steve Roach s report on Tripp s testimony. ) Moreover, Berke emphasized that there is no evidence cheap sea world tickets that the Treasury Department was banning cheap sea world tickets the U.S. Mint from exchanging cheap sea world tickets gold coins for other gold coins. Indeed, none of the Presidential Orders, or Treasury Department commands before cheap sea world tickets April 12th, prohibited coin for coin trades. It would seem that trades of uncirculated $20 gold coins for other uncirculated $20 gold coins were legal even after the paying out of gold was stopped.
Tripp testified that some contemporary requests for 1933 Double Eagles were denied. Ordering a coin from a distance is not the same as traveling to Philadelphia and implementing a trade in person. More importantly, my impression is that the requests to which Tripp was referring occurred cheap sea world tickets after April 12, 1933, perhaps some in 1934. By April 1933, the political climate had dramatically changed, and, by the summer of 1933, William Woodin was unable to serve as Secretary of the Treasury, due to an illness.
Treasury Department officials had to contend with a nationwide economic crisis cheap sea world tickets and establishing guidelines for processing mail orders for 1933 Double Eagles was not on anyone s mind at the Treasury Department. The point here is that in March, and very early April 1933, coin for coin trades for 1933 Double Eagles probably occurred and such trades were considered a legitimate practice at the time.
Roger Burdette testified on July 18th. As I discussed in my Dec. 28th column, The Ten Leading Topics of 2010 , Burdette discovered documents that show that the "first 1933 Double Eagles were struck March 2nd, during the Hoover administration." Additionally, documents discovered by Burdette indicate that the Mint Cashier was provided with forty-three 1933 Double Eagles on March 4. According to Burdette, these "balanced" the accounting of the production of 1932 Double Eagles as some of the already counted 1932 Double Eagles were determined to be defective and thus replaced with 1933 Double Eagles.
So, there may have been 1933 Double Eagles available on March 4 at the Cashier s counter for collectors or dealers to obtain. If 1933 Double Eagles left the Mint in a situation where recordkeepers at the U.S. Mint listed them as being 1932 Double Eagles, would it make sense to assume that these were stolen?
Collectors and lawyers now seem to forget that, in the 1930s, only a few collectors and coin dealers cared about the dates on recently minted gold coins. To almost everyone else, a $20 gold coin was worth just that, twenty dollars. Few government officials and even fewer bankers cared whether a Saint Gaudens Double Eagle was dated 1924, 1928, 1929, 1931, 1932 or 1933. Twenty dollars was a significant amount of money in the 1930s, a sum that bought much more food and fuel than twenty dollars could be used to acquire in 2011. Most U.S. Mint officials at the time did not feel a need to keep specific track of the dates of each coin.
In David Tripp s book on Fenton s 1933 Double Eagle, Tripp provides an example of a private citizen trading an old Eagle ($10 gold coin) for a new 1933 Eagle ($10 gold coin) on March 1, 1933. Tripp notes that a record was kept of this trade. Because a record was kept of this trade, however, it does not follow that records were kept of all such trades or that it was policy to require records to be kept of all such trades. Indeed, it was established at the trial that there are records of four 1933 Eagles ($10 coins) being released, yet many more, at least eighteen in my estimation, are currently owned by collectors.
I strongly doubt that records were kept of most gold coin for gold coin trades. By tradition, the trading of old coins for new coins, or the trading of common dates for better dates, was considered a legitimate practice and was not considered cheap sea world tickets a pay out of gol