4.9.05

Land of the.. free?

This is just very strange:

Battle over rare gold eagle coins

The US Mint has seized 10 Double Eagle gold coins - some of the rarest and most valuable in the world - from a woman checking their authenticity.

The Mint says the coins, which never entered circulation, are public property and is holding them at a fort.

Joan Langbord, who says she inherited the coins from her father, a jeweller, has vowed to fight to get them back.

The gold Double Eagle is so rare that in 2002 a single coin reached a price of $7.59m at auction.


But the US Mint says that Mrs Langbord's coins could only have been originally obtained in an "unlawful manner" in the 1930s.


What in the hell? Without any proof that these coins were actually obtained illegally, without a complaint, without a victim, this woman's property is seized. Oh yeah, all $75.9 million of it.

Isn't there a statute of limitations on this kind of thing?

Story here.

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