PHILADELPHIA, PA - A jeweler's heirs with a cache of rare $20 gold coins will fight for the right to keep them when they square off in court this week against the U.S. Treasury. Treasury officials charge that the never-circulated, and last minted "double eagles" were stolen from the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia in 1933. They could be worth $80 million or more, given that one sold for nearly $7.6 million in 2002. Collector members of the ArtKabinett social network will be closely watching these legal proceedings. The coins come from a batch that were struck but melted down after President Franklin D. Roosevelt took the country off the gold standard in 1933. Two double eagle gold coins were preserved for the Smithsonian Institute. But a handful more mysteriously got out of the US Mint in Philadelphia. The daughter and grandsons of Israel Switt, a jeweler and scrap metal dealer on nearby Jeweler's Row, say they discovered 10 of them in his bank deposit box in 2003. Joan Langbord of Philadelphia and her sons went to the U.S. Treasury to authenticate the coins, but the government instead seized them. Authorities noted that the box was rented six years after Switt died in 1990, and that the family never paid inheritance taxes on them. What's more, the Secret Service has long believed Switt and a corrupt cashier at the US Mint were somehow involved in the double-eagle disappearance. "A thief cannot convey good title to stolen property," Assistant U.S. Attorney Joel M. Sweet wrote. The 2011 trial that starts Thursday, July 7th might therefore have echoes of a 1930's-era criminal case. Double eagles, first struck in 1850, feature a flying eagle on one side and a figure representing liberty on the other. They get their name from their $20 value, twice that of gold coins known as eagles. Collectors would love to see the 1933 coins go to auction since they are so rare. Lawyer Barry Berke, who represents the Langbords, previously won a 50-50 split with the government in the only other double eagle case, involving the coin that was sold at auction $7.59 million. He argues that the family's coins could have left the Mint legally, since it was permissible to exchange gold coins for gold bullion. The government instead insists that no double eagles lawfully left the Mint, and that the coins were legally seized. The gold coins are being kept at Fort Knox in Kentucky.
