by: Peter J. Gallagher (@pjsgallagher) (LinkedIn)
One of the more interesting cases I have written about is Langbord v. U.S. Dept. of Treasury, which I described in a June 2015 post as follows:
It's not every day that you find a case that starts with Depression-era monetary policy, ends with a relatively obscure federal statute, and in between tells the tale of the alleged theft of a coin considered to be "the most valuable ounce of gold in the world." Did I mention that the case also involves both Presidents Roosevelt, King Farouk of Egypt and the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks? A case recently decided by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Langbord v. U.S. Dept. of Treasury, has all of this and more.
Langbord involved the 1933 Double Eagle gold coin. It is a $20 gold piece that was designed by famed artist Augustus Saint-Gaudens after he was commissioned by President Theodore Roosevelt to help beautify American coinage. Almost a half million Double Eagles were minted, but none were ever officially released into circulation. Shortly after they were minted, newly-elected President Franklin D. Roosevelt, seeking to stem a run on the banks, issued Executive Order 6102, which made it illegal to "hoard" large amounts of gold. Accordingly, the U.S. Mint was ordered to stop issuing gold coins and to melt down any gold coins in its possession, including the Double Eagle. As part of this process, two Double Eagles were sent to the Smithsonian Institution for posterity, but the rest were supposed to have been melted down.
As you might have guessed, not all of the remaining coins were melted down. According to the government, approximately 20 of them ended up in the hands of a coin dealer who worked with a corrupt cashier at the US Mint to smuggle them out before they could be melted down. Over the years, it was alleged, he sold several of these coins. But, after his death, his family found 10 of them in his safety deposit box and offered to return them to the government. They requested the same terms as the government had agreed to several years earlier with a different individual who came into possession of another one of the coins. The government originally seized that coin after luring the dealer into a sting conducted at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City, but later, after the dealer sued, agreed to sell the coin at auction and split the proceeds with him. At auction, it sold for almost $7.6 million, more than twice the world record for any coin sold at auction at the time. Plaintiffs in Langbord were looking for the same arrangement for their coins. The government agreed in principle but asked to authenticate the coins first. Plaintiffs agreed and sent the coins to the government for authentication. However, after authenticating them, the government refused to return them, arguing that they were stolen and were rightfully the property of the U.S. government.
Plaintiffs sued to get the coins back. The district court allowed the government to keep them, but a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, reversed, ordering that the coins be returned to the Langbords. (Read more about that here.)
The government petitioned for en banc review, which was granted. (Read more about that here and here.)
In a decision released on August 1, 2016, the full Third Circuit reversed the three-judge panel and ordered that the government could keep the coins. (Read more about that here.)
Plaintiffs asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the case, but this request was recently denied, thus ending, for now at least, "The Case of the Missing Double Eagle Coins."
Pete's Take 