1933 Double Eagle - Discovery of Ten More Coins

Discovery of Ten More Coins

In August 2005, the United States Mint announced the recovery of ten additional stolen 1933 double eagle gold coins from the family of Philadelphia jeweler Israel Switt, the illicit coin dealer identified by the Secret Service as a party to the theft who admitted selling the first nine double eagles recovered a half century earlier. In September 2004, the coins' ostensible owner, Joan Switt Langbord, voluntarily surrendered the 10 coins to the Secret Service. In July 2005, the coins were authenticated by the United States Mint, working with the Smithsonian Institution, as being genuine 1933 double eagles.

According to various accounts, Israel Switt had many contacts and friends within the Philadelphia Mint, and reportedly had access to many points of the minting process. A secondary source reports the Secret Service found that only one man had access to the coins at the time and served prison time for a similar embezzlement in 1940: George McCann. Switt may have obtained the stolen 1933 double eagles through a relationship with the Head Mint Cashier. One possible theory is that McCann swapped previous year double eagles for the 1933 specimens prior to melting, thus avoiding compromise of accounting books and inventory lists.

Coin experts in the numismatic world have advanced an argument that Switt could have legally obtained the 1933 coins when he was exchanging gold bullion for coins. Although the Mint records clearly show that no 1933 double eagles were issued, there were allegedly three weeks in March 1933 when new double eagles could possibly have been legally obtained. The Mint began striking double eagles on March 15 and Roosevelt's Executive Order to ban them was not finalized until April 5. On March 6, 1933, the Secretary of the Treasury ordered the Director of the Mint to pay gold only under license issued by the Secretary, and the United States Mint Cashier's daily statements do not reflect that any 1933 double eagles were paid out.

Until the early 1970s (when President Nixon took the United States off the gold standard and President Ford signed legislation that again made it legal for the public to own gold bullion) any recovered 1933 double eagle, as gold bullion, was destined to be melted. Therefore, while double eagles recovered prior to 1974 were melted down, any double eagle recovered now can be spared this fate. Currently, with the exception of the one sold on July 30, 2002, 1933 double eagle coins cannot be the legal possession of any member of the public, as they were never issued and hence remain the property of the United States government.

On October 28, 2010, United States District Court Judge Legrome D. Davis released a 20-page decision, which led to a trial in July 2011. On July 20, 2011, after a 10-day trial—a jury decided unanimously in favor of the United States government concerning ownership of the ten additional double eagles. The court concluded the circumstantial evidence proved that Israel Switt illegally obtained the coins from the United States government and they are still government property. The decision was affirmed on August 29, 2012, and the plaintiffs plan to appeal.

Since 2003, the 10 double eagles have been stored at the United States Bullion Depository, Fort Knox, Kentucky. They were shown to jurors in Philadelphia during the July 2011 trial but have been returned to Fort Knox where they will remain until a decision is made regarding their disposition.