I look forward to all the comments by my FRiends.
If I understand the case correctly someone somehow acquired (some might say pilfered) gold coins from the mint and stashed them in a deposit box. Now they are worth millions. This legal saga has been going on for years. It comes down to whether the family can legally own the coins vs the power government has to seize private property.
Anybody know what happened to that couple in California who found like coffee cans buried near a tree on their yard FULL of gold coins?
Not sure if the government tried to seize it or what...
Here’s my comment.
If the Federal government now in control of this country is so damned insistent on reclaiming those coins using an edict by FDR (my personal choice for worst President after Hussein Obama), then they maybe should GET the coins.
But they should be forced to melt each and every one of them down to the base metal and add that to this country’s reserve.
Otherwise, it is greed and I would fully expect some bureaucrat to profit from the sale of them on the open market, giving due tribute to Dear Leader of course.
Government in general has become criminals with credentials. I witnessed the IRS seize business accounts to force companies to sign contracts agreeing to do certain things that were not law. (Hire only full time regular employees rather than contractors. All of these businesses eventually went under.) In anther incident related by a CFO I knew, the FBI helped some rich idiots buy a seized boat and import cocaine using an FBI supplied crew. Then the FBI seized their assets, including a large business, a skyscraper and their homes, bank accounts and cars. The men were not prosecuted. It was for the money.
Huzzah!
Your premise is wrong I think.
These Coins were never in circulation.
The question is, can stolen property become private property.
If theft can’t be proven, then it can’t be assumed. How many of us could prove our things are our things if the government decided to take us to court on a whim?
Blinded by laser-armed cops – scared yet? (Demilitarizing? Not so fast! Police on buying binge...)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3280474/posts
Excellent! This story has been on for some time and had a number of legal issues to resolve including if the government “owned” all gold.
The family should simply send a bar of 20 ounces of gold to the US Mint and call it even.
innocent until proven guity
My limited understanding of the 1993 coins are that they were never released into circulation.
In my humble opinion, the law banning the possession of gold and gold coins was and would continue to be an illegal law. But in the case of the 1933 double eagles, they were never released into circulation. By definition, that would mean none could be legally held regardless of the gold ban law.
An older acquaintance of mine told me that in those days when armored cars were less available than today, the government appealed to extremely prominent businessmen to help them transport the gold to Fort Knox with their companies’ armored cars and guards. Her grandfather was an industrialist who was among those chosen. Her grandfather told her that the only truck that mysteriously went missing and never showed up at Fort Knox with its gold was the one proffered by Joseph P. Kennedy.
So, if I say, steal your car. How long do I have to hold onto it before it becomes mine?
The Link goes to horse race results.
finders keepers
losers weepers
realistically what was the damage to the US government ?
I would say around $200.
He, of course, had no authority to do that
This case is really complicated, because it involves the (now dead) power of Congress to "coin money, and regulate the value thereof".
Gold and silver coins did not become money (legal tender) when struck. They belonged to the Bureau of the Mint, as bullion, EVEN THOUGH LOOKING LIKE COINS, until Congress authorized release through legislation, at which point they (still property of the Bureau of the Mint) became legal tender money ("monetized") instead of bullion, no longer worth their gold/silver content but now worth the value stamped or incused on their reverses.
Once the Bureau of the Mint sent them out to banks, and the banks distributed them as withdrawals, they became the property of the holders, as their own real money.
Because there has been no real money since 1964, these concepts are very difficult for Americans who have never actually possessed real money to understand.
The government contends that no 1933-date gold coin-like objects were ever monetized, and that hence the fact of their sojourn outside of the Philadelphia Mint constituted theft of government bullion.