← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Ed Toner
Thread ID: 19838 | Posts: 7 | Started: 2005-08-26
2005-08-26 18:32 | User Profile
[url]http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/08/25/rare.coins.ap/index.html[/url]
U.S. Mint seizes priceless coins PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (AP) -- The U.S. Mint seized 10 Double Eagle gold coins from 1933, among the rarest and most valuable coins in the world, that were turned in by a jeweler seeking to determine their authenticity.
2005-08-26 18:55 | User Profile
Sounds like Mr. Israel Switt's loved ones know the score on this one- they're getting what they deserve. For once the shysters don't get away with it.
2005-08-26 19:33 | User Profile
In its statement, the Mint said officials were still deciding what they would do with the seized coins, which are being held at a military fort. [B]They said they had no plans to auction them but would consider saving "these historical artifacts" for public exhibits.[/B] Other double eagle coins seized in the past were melted down.
How would these double-eagles look any different than other double-eagles, and why would people line up to look at them?
2005-08-26 21:22 | User Profile
[QUOTE]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-1930's and now were "recovered."[/QUOTE] Ed,
This part about "in an unlawful manner" is funny. I wonder what Lebryk would say about FDR's so-called "bank holliday" where safe deposit boxes were rifled for gold coins and bullion and replaced with paper money?
2005-08-26 21:29 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Sertorius]Ed,
This part about "in an unlawful manner" is funny. I wonder what Lebryk would say about FDR's so-called "bank holliday" where safe deposit boxes were rifled for gold coins and bullion and replaced with paper money?[/QUOTE]
I never heard of this before.
2005-08-26 21:49 | User Profile
Bardamu,
There's alot of stuff out there we haven't heard about. I got this for you on the fly. [url]http://www.strike-the-root.com/columns/Chkoreff/chkoreff1.html[/url] Words of the arch liar himself, conveniently leaving out gold. [url]http://130.18.140.19/stennis/FDRbankcrisis.html[/url]
2005-08-27 15:32 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Sertorius]Ed,
This part about "in an unlawful manner" is funny. I wonder what Lebryk would say about FDR's so-called "bank holliday" where safe deposit boxes were rifled for gold coins and bullion and replaced with paper money?[/QUOTE]
Regardless of what one thinks about FDR and the gold standard, if the story can be taken at face value it seems that Israel Switt was nothing more than a garden variety thief, albeit one with some "connections":
[QUOTE]The Mint contends Switt obtained a cache of the gold coins from his connections at the Mint just before they were to be reduced to bullion in 1937.[/QUOTE]
Uncirculated means never released, after all. Jeweler Israel Switt had some fellow traveler on the inside steal what amounts to public property, and now his family wants to become filthy rich off his ill-gotten gains. I don't see anything wrong with this kind of confiscation; the various Switts in this country have been getting away with this shysterism for far too long.