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U.S. Mint keeps rare coins worth millions - family


notofilia

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  • 3 weeks later...

They certainly didn't bother with confiscation of the King Farouk '33 that sold for over 7 million a couple of years back. They didn't ever exactly "monetize" that one, either.

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They certainly didn't bother with confiscation of the King Farouk '33 that sold for over 7 million a couple of years back. They didn't ever exactly "monetize" that one, either.

 

Actually, they did. In addition to the high bid, the buyer had to pay $20 to the treasury for monetization, plus the Government got to keep half the proceeds from the sale as part of the legal agreement.

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Actually, they did.  In addition to the high bid, the buyer had to pay $20 to the treasury for monetization, plus the Government got to keep half the proceeds from the sale as part of the legal agreement.

 

My bad. Monetization occured "after the fact". I wonder if the gov't. will consider the same deal for these 10 pieces? Should be interesting to follow the court proceedings since the Treasury has already created a precedent with the one "legal" '33.

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This is one court case everyone in the hobby will be watching. It seems like these are the only coins the government has been relentless in pursuing. Think of all the other coins that have never been "monetized" like the 5 1913 Liberty Nickels, or every pattern coin on the market today. If the courts find for the governement, they could theoretically go after every one of those pieces. This is why property rights are at the foundation of our god-given freedoms, without them the government becomes tyranical!

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Maybe I am just cynical but I wonder if the government is either looking for a 'cut' like in the last one or if they made some kind of deal in the settlement with the first person to preserve the value of the coin.

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Maybe I am just cynical but I wonder if the government is either looking for a 'cut' like in the last one or if they made some kind of deal in the settlement with the first person to preserve the value of the coin.

 

I believe that was part of the deal, that they would not monetize any subsequent examples found. Of course I may be more cynical than you but I recall that section of the Constitution that says only gold and silver coins can be used as currency, and Roosevelt pretty much threw that one out the window right about the time these coins were minted. How's that for irony?

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Not trying to play Monday morning quarterback here or anything, but this whole story strikes me as being very odd. I did read about it in CoinWorld and a firearms forum as well in a legal/political section. I collected as a kid (mostly foreign coins) and I recently got back into the hobby. One of my first purchases was an '06 redbook. After my second day of reading it as a "newbie" I knew that the Secret Service cofiscated all the '33 double eagles that came into the market. They obviously knew something about the '33 double eagle because they sent them to the mint to verify that they were real. Did they not expect this to happen? If I came across a '33 double eagle, I surely would keep my mouth shut and enjoy holding a multi-million dollar coin in my hand.

 

-Robert

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  • 11 months later...

This reminds me of the whole aluminum penny deal where Congress failed to pass a bill to change pennies to aluminum.. so 1.5m alumi-pennies were destroyed, a few got out (unknown amount, rumored to be less than 12) and there are only 3 known pennies extant. Unfortunately an "expert" gauged a deep gash in one of the pennies to "see if it was solid aluminum".

 

In the other 2 cases of known aluminum pennies, several collectors that had owned it died of cancer. The story was quite strange... like the hope diamond... The one guy that openly admits he has a coin refuses to tell the government where its at so they cant steal it.

 

It makes for interesting reading.

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  • 2 months later...
Maybe I am just cynical but I wonder if the government is either looking for a 'cut' like in the last one or if they made some kind of deal in the settlement with the first person to preserve the value of the coin.

I'm even more cynical. I really believe the government purposely puts out error coins, coins not for circulation, stories of special stolen coins, etc to enhance sales and stockpiling of coins they produce. Since they know people are hoarding coins the minute they let slip some story like this, they ensure thier jobs. And if we all continue to believe and stockpile coins they may even be doing overtime. There is just to many wierd things happening with the Mint.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I always thought the GSA Morgan dollars were suspicious. After all, the government owns the dies. They knew that 'CC' Morgans command a premium on the market. Why not 'discover' a whole bunch of very rare, very valuable coins and sell them? The market was there, and I firmly believe they exploited it.

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I just finished the book "Double Eagle" which tells the tale of the 33 Saint. It gives a good background as to why these coins more than likely were stolen.

 

What makes the Farouk 33 different is that it was issued an export license by the US Gov't at one point in time, thereby making an argument that the US Gov't recognized this one coin as legal. This argument does not apply to the 10 other 33's in question, or the bag-full this family likely still has in their basement.

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man that sucks findin a bunch of rare coins worth millions and then someone comes an takes em from u for nothin the hell with the gov. if that happend to me i will take them to the biggest court in the world (in holland as i heared) an sue them till i die then my son will sue em then my grand son it will nvr end.

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They minted Peace Dollars in 1964 in Denver. What do you suppose the odds of one of those turning up are?

I didn't think there were any '33 Saints, until I saw photos of it. How far out would it be to see a '64 Peace that never made it out of the Mint?

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  • 9 months later...

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