Philadelphia Family's Fight For Rare Coins Reaches Court
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- A Philadelphia family says the federal government shouldn't seize 10 rare gold coins because officials can't prove they were stolen from the U.S. Mint in the 1930s.
A trial over whether the government can seize the 1933 "double eagles" has begun. The $20 coins are potentially worth $80 million or more.
U.S. Treasury officials say the lavish coins were never circulated and are therefore stolen goods. Nearly a half-million were melted into gold bars when the country went off the gold standard in 1933. But a handful mysteriously survived. The government says all of those are linked to Philadelphia jeweler Israel Switt.
Switt's daughter, Joan Langbord, and her sons say they found the coins after Switt's 1990 death. They say he could have legally traded gold for the coins at the Mint.
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