Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Sweet Swats Switt

Sorry, just couldn't avoid the headline for this story:-

A family that asked the U.S. Mint to authenticate 10 extremely rare coins cannot prove they were obtained legally and has no right to them, government lawyers argue in court papers.

...Plaintiffs Joan S. Langbord and her two sons say they discovered the cache in 2003 in a safety deposit box belonging to her late father, Philadelphia jeweler Israel Switt.

They approached the Mint the next year and agreed to turn them over to be authenticated, the Langbords say. But the Mint — after vouching for them — refuses to return them on grounds they were stolen U.S. property.

"Plaintiffs fail ... to plead any fact to support their implication that Switt legally obtained the 1933 Double Eagles," Assistant U.S. Attorney Joel M. Sweet wrote in the brief filed Friday. "(That) supports a reasonable inference that Switt obtained the 1933 Double Eagles knowing that they were stolen property."

No comments: