Loan 365

Coin dealer’s heirs await ruling Long deceased Israel Switt, once considered a “patriarch” of Philadelphia’s Jewelers Row, was a dealer in coins and gold. He could also have been an eager participant in a 1930s scheme to sell coveted gold coins stolen from the U.S. Mint. 75 years on, a federal jury will determine the truth. Switt died in 1990 at 95, but for his descendants, the decision will be worth tens of millions of dollars.

What’s in it? At stake is the ownership of ten $20 gold pieces minted in 1933, extraordinarily rare and stunningly valuable Double Eagle coins likely worth at least $7.59 million each. The government says that “they were stolen and that it is the legal owner of the 10 coins that in 2004 turned up in a safety-deposit box.” They also think that Switt was somehow involved.

The Switt family Switt’s elderly daughter, Joan Langbord, and two of her sons hope to convince jurors that a Secret Service investigation into Switt seven decades ago never proved him to be a criminal. No one knows how Switt came by the coins, says attorney Barry H. Berke. Therefore the family is the legal owner. “The government has a theory. They don’t have facts,” Berke told the U.S. District Court jurors in his opening statement. Next to him sat Switt’s daughter, over 80 but still involved in running I. Switt, the secondhand jewelry store her father founded in 1932. It’s still on the 100 block of South Eighth Street.

The coins The history of the 10 gold pieces is a convoluted tale dating back to 1933. Gold coins were taken out of circulation, and it became illegal to possess gold currency. The holders were reimbursed in paper money. At the same time, the Philadelphia mint had just produced 445,500 new $20 gold coins, which went straight to storage. In 1937, they were all supposed to have been melted down into bullion, two were given to the Smithsonian and a third to King Farouk I of Egypt. But at least 20 other coins survived. The Secret Service launched an investigation and eventually concluded that Switt had illegally obtained nine Double Eagle coins from an official at the Philadelphia mint.

Double Eagle In 1996 a British coin collector tried to sell the Double Eagle once owned by Farouk. The government said it owned the coin, and after years of litigation, it was sold on July 30, 2002, for $7.59 million, the proceeds split with the U.S. Treasury. It was the highest price ever paid for a coin. Records show that the day before the sale, Joan Langbord visited the safety deposit box that contained the coins.

Safety deposit Langbord told the government her box contained the never-inventoried contents of a safety deposit box she inherited from her mother. Berke said his client missed the coins because they were wrapped in a John Wanamaker bag in the bottom of the large, square steel box. In 1998 the Langbords contacted Treasury officials, allowing government experts to examine their 10 coins to determine their authenticity in hope of reaching a similar deal. Instead, the government said the coins were stolen property and refused to return them to the family.

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