Pa. jury mulls who owns gold 1933 `double eagles’

    A federal jury in Philadelphia is mulling a case that has long fascinated coin collectors: who owns a set or exceedingly rare 1933 gold coins worth millions of dollars apiece.

    The family of a city jeweler says they found the coins in their father’s bank deposit box years after his 1990 death. But U.S. government lawyers argue the coins were never issued–and were therefore stolen from the Mint in Philadelphia in the 1930s.

    The Secret Service has long suspected that jeweler Israel Switt and a shady cashier at the Mint were involved in the breach. Switt’s daughter, Joan Langbord, and her sons want the government to return the seized coins.

    The case involves a set of 1933 “double eagles” designed by famed sculptor August Saint-Gaudens.

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