They're remnants of
last U.S.
government default
PHILADELPHIA
— The 10 rare Double Eagle gold coins at the heart of a federal trial in Philadelphia are remnants of the last U.S. government
default, almost eight decades before the current stalemate in Congress over
raising the debt limit.
The daughter of a Philadelphia jeweler
found the coins in a family safe-deposit box in 2003. The coins were
confiscated by federal authorities. None were issued to the public after
minting in 1933, the year President Franklin Roosevelt made it illegal for
citizens to own gold and told investors that the government wouldn't repay
bonds with the metal. In 2002, a single Double Eagle fetched a record $7.59
million at auction.
Joan Langbord's
lawsuit to reclaim the coins is stirring passion among the numismatic community
at a time when gold is near a record reached in May and has rallied every year
for a decade. President Barack Obama and congressional leaders have failed to
reach a compromise on reducing deficits and raising the $14.3-trillion federal
debt ceiling before the government exceeds its borrowing authority on Aug. 2.
"The
government is broke and, eventually, they will dig into everyone's
pockets," said Tobina Kahn, the vice-president of House of Kahn Estate
Jewelers in Chicago.
"Anyone who puts money into gold coins has no confidence in the government
or fiat currencies."
Gold has rallied
nine per cent this year and reached a record $1,577.40 an ounce on May 2 as the
U.S.
kept borrowing costs at a record low and purchased Treasuries to help boost the
economy. Gold priced in euros was the highest ever Monday as investors sought a
haven against declining currencies amid Europe's
sovereign-debt crisis.
A single 1933
Double Eagle believed to have once belonged to King Farouk of Egypt sold at
auction in 2002 for $7.59 million, according to the court filings. The
government minted fewer than 500,000 of the $20 coins in 1933, and all were
ordered to be melted, according to the U.S. Mint.
Langbord believed
the coins belonged to her father, Israel Switt, according to the filings. The government,
in a court filing, said the Secret Service in 1944 investigated "Swift's
involvement in the apparent theft of 1933 Double Eagles from the Mint."
The U.S. Attorney's Office declined to prosecute Switt, citing the statute of
limitations.
The family gave the
Double Eagles to Daniel Shaver, the chief counsel for the U.S. Mint, saying
they wanted to sell the coins and split the proceeds with the government.
Officials concluded that the coins were authentic and were government property.
Langbord's lawyer,
Barry Berke, didn't immediately respond to a message for comment. Patty Hartman
of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Philadelphia
said the trial is expected to last two weeks.
Thirteen of the
Double Eagles are known to exist, according to Robert Hoge, the curator of
North American Coins and Currency at the American Numismatic Society. Besides
the 10 coins on trial in Philadelphia, the
Smithsonian has two and the King Farouk coin is on display at the Federal
Reserve in New York.
The coins, which
have less than an ounce of gold in them, were "too expensive for most
people to consider collecting them at the time they were minted," Hoge
said. "There's so much history with these coins. The gold value of the
piece is minimal compared to its historical value."
Double Eagles were
minted during the Depression, when Roosevelt
was trying to prevent hoarding of gold and a run on bank deposits. The coin
depicts an eagle with spreading wings on one side and the other has the image of
a woman portraying liberty as designed by Augustus Saint-Gaudens that had been
in use since 1907. In 1986, the same design for liberty was chosen for American
Eagle Gold Coins.
It's unlikely that
the government of today would confiscate private gold holdings as it did in
1933, said Michael Haynes, the chief executive officer of American Precious
Metals Exchange, an online bullion dealer.
"Unlike the
period to the 1930s, the U.S.
currency is not now convertible into gold and silver," so the circumstances
that led to Roosevelt's order don't exist, he
said. The exchange's sales are headed for a record year and may be up more than
67 per cent from a year earlier.
--- Bloomberg News