If I ever did find something this valuable. I think they should just let it go and let them stay in the collectors hands. Eveybody knows that if the government keeps them, they will be "lost in a few years" uh I mean melted down.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/08/25/rare.coins.ap/index.html

Come pry my 1964 Peace Dollar from my cold dead hands.

They probably won't melt them, as they've said they want to use them for exhibitions. Still, this will be an interesting legal battle. There was a big spread on this in last week's Coin World. By the way, there are still at least 5 more that are not accounted for...

If it was my family that owned them, I would have sent just one off to check for authenticity.

Yeah that would have been smart.

Actually, they are very unlikely to have any idea how many were even struck. It's an open secret that the mint's records are often wildly inaccurate regarding numbers of coins produced and how many were released to banks. In the case of the '43 bronze Lincoln cents, officials have admitted that there's no way of knowing how many strips of planchets were punched or how many coins were struck on bronze planchets and bagged.

You'd think they would have very accurate records at least of the gold coins produced, but records have been lost, altered and knowingly falsified for various reasons ever since there has ben a US Mint. There could be five more '33 $20s left out in the wild somewhere or there could be 500. The last people to know how many would be the bureaucrats paid to keep records.

I guess the world may never know then

I agree. They should have known the coins would be seized by the Mint. As famous as these coins are, they could have easily researched them.

I doubt they'll ever see them again.

Wow! The story has hit cnn now.

We have handled a couple of cases over the years where clients have sued the Government. It is almost impossible to win. I agree. I do not think they will ever get those coins back.

Too bad they didn't take them overseas and sell them. At the prices 1933 $20's are going for, I would gladly live in the South of France or in Tuscany the rest of my life.

I doubt that would work since I think the owner of the 33 that sold in 2002 was caught trying to sell it in London. Either way, you would have to be absolutely sure who you were dealing with since it could always be a sting.

I would sell them to the Chinese then. And then move to Tuscany. La Dolce Vita

I was reading about that in the paper yesterday. My girlfriend came running in (she just HATES the hobby) and told me she knew I'd love the article. Pretty interesting stuff. That would really be a let down if they were fake.

Just another example of selective enforcement by the U.S. government -- it's disgraceful...