1933 Double Eagle Case Refused By Scotus

I would hate to be that lawyer that gave them the advice to send them to the treasury. PCGS could have authenticated them and they would all have sold at auction before the Treasury department even knew about them.

Not a chance that would happen. The former owner of the only known 1974-D aluminum cent found out the hard way when he received a Cease and Desist letter from Treasury right before the coin was supposed to be auctioned.

The theft of wealth from individuals by the Government under absurd pretense (punishing individuals for an alleged crime not committed by them, and 90+ years ago) is nothing new; what surprises me is that the Court would refuse writ. It is the "stolen goods shall bear no financial fruit" doctrine in extremis; that the mere possession of something, having been judged to be unlawfully taken any number of years ago, makes you complicit in its theft and therefore answerable to the crime simply because you now possess that item. We have seen this recently applied to land (Government refusal to recognize unlawful confiscation of property from Native Texians/pre-annexation Texan settlers), cars (such as the 50+ year old stolen classic car which was taken from its current owner, who had restored it from a junkyard, and returned to descendant of the original owner) and once again gold coins.

By the logic in force here, anything the Government determines has been stolen or illegally obtained can be confiscated from citizens at any time, with no recompense, without regards to relevant local or state laws, and without regards to statutes of limitation; and the Court's refusal to hear the case means that if the circuit courts split, the outcome may vary by jurisdiction with no means of reconciling the split.

This case may have long-standing consequences for collectors of ANY US coin pattern issues, errors, trial strikes, etc. since at any time the Government could decide they were really "stolen" or were never intended to be released to the public, and simply take them from your possession and there would not be anything you could do about it short of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a trial with no avenue of appeal past the circuit courts. Meanwhile, the Government is free to then turn around and sell these issues for profit and legitimize them in such a manner.

Hey Alpha it does set precedent since the government will use this to go after not only errors that they will claim left the mint illegally but also the 5 most famous nickels of all time. Yes I am talking about the 1913 Liberty nickels. They can now claim they left the mint illegally and demand their return.

There are probably a bunch more 1933 Double Eagles out in the wild. What an interesting case this has been over the last decade.
The Langbords were not given the best of advice when they turned the pieces over to the Government. I am sure that the family and the lawyer representing them wished for a similar result to that of the Fenton Case .
I hope that the Treasury eventually offers the coins for display in various museums or even sells them in the numismatic market.

Leave the law to the lawyers. And remember, "possession is nine tenths of the law".

Making the 1913 Liberty nickel illegal as well? Seriously, the minting of these coins is a historical event that happened such a long time ago, can't we all just get over it?

It's like a man whose ancestors were enslaved, and then sues the descendant of the man who owned his ancestor. It happened a long time ago. Can't we just leave it in the past?

Really and truly well said Paralyse. What a shame it is.