RAJ on COINS

Back to Roger's Book, I would like to mention that his assiduous descriptions of die varieties helped me discover one of my own, which was very exciting. Roger himself discovered some very strange 1922 S coins with obverse "filing lines" ... some serious die damage that appear as raised lines across the fields in multiple locations. He postulates someone carelessly or deliberately took a flat file to an otherwise normal die. The photo is of Roger's discovery coin. for more information: https://www.ngccoin.com/variety-plus/united-states/gold-double-eagles/saint-gaudens-20-1907-1933/20322/ Note lines to the left of liberty's waist, behind her hair, by her right foot, and elsewhere. I especially like the lines behind a number of stars at the top, as they make them look like "shooting" stars above lady liberty! There was a Coin World article about his discovery around the time his coin was auctioned. He speculated that very few probably existed as the 1922 S itself is a less common and once though rare date/mintmark combination. I began searching in earnest for other examples and found a few in auction records. While looking for them, I discovered a variety of my own, another die damaged '22 S with a die gash behind the first "2" in 1922. (I hope they fired the guy screwing up those 22 dies in San Francisco! Makes me wonder if there are other die damage 1922 S varieties in other series from that mint!) Not only did I find a couple of auction photos, but around the same time I managed to "cherrypick" a raw example at a Whitman Coin show. I showed my information to Dave Lange of NGC, and they wound up adding the variety to their Varieties Plus listings: https://www.ngccoin.com/variety-plus/united-states/gold-double-eagles/saint-gaudens-20-1907-1933/820273/ NGC even slabbed the raw coin as the "discovery coin" for me, which is one of the highlights of my collection. Roger mentioned in the book that he hoped his effort would inspire others to find more discoveries, and I was both lucky and happy to oblige him! Just last fall I was able to find an unattributed (not mentioned on the slab or in the catalog description) example of his "filed die" variety at auction, which I was able to get for a reasonable price. I can't overestimate the "thrill of the chase" that variety collecting affords, and until more people find Roger's wonderful book, great opportunities are still out there!

Or yourself in the present. Sounds like a good take-away to me!

AMEN! and Yes, I do live in Pennsylvania where it's three minutes to midnight! Going to bed!

Coins are fun, no doubt about it. The 33 story is one of the best! Do you think the grandsons held back a couple of 33's from the ten they turned in? Wouldn't surprise me!

OK. I see I've touched something of a nerve here. I don't believe any legal access to the coins could have happened before the initial transfer of some of them from the coiner to the cashier, which I understand was on March 15th. I could be mistaken, but that is my understanding. Also, whether one agrees or disagrees with FDR, the gold confiscation, whether it was constitutional or not, etc. the fact is we live within a system of rules and laws and one takes risks when one operates outside of them. If we all operate outside of them, total chaos ensues! The big picture at the time was the great depression, banks failing all over the place, and the bold (if extra constitutional) actions taken to avoid complete economic and social collapse on an international scale. George McCann and Isreal Switt knowingly tried to take undue advantage of the situation by virtue of their special "access" to what became contraband. Each eventually did get caught at some kind of wrongdoing. As to Mr. Weinman, I have met Greg on a few occasions. He is an advisor to the Citizen's Coinage Advisory Committee, and is a lawyer by training and profession. I believe he mentions in the video that he was involved with the story from the Fenton/Farouk episode on. He has no dog in the fight beyond doing his job. Don't shoot the messenger! As I said, he is actually a very nice man whose willingness to talk to us "coin types" and answer questions should always be respected, welcomed and appreciated. After all, the Mint's position is half the story... and the STORY (as I suspect Roger would agree) is what makes the coins and the hobby fascinating! And as to the 1933's, it probably isn't over. Who's to say the Mint won't one day decide to sell the Langbord coins and generate the revenues you mention and make a few well heeled collectors ecstatic?!

OK, I'm not taking sides in this fight. I can see arguments pro and con. I do know that Greg Weinman is the senior legal counsel for the Mint, not an IRS operative! He was probably and primarily responsible for providing the legal team on the case with the evidence the mint produced. He is NOT a numismatist or probably even a collector, which is why in his comments he remarked to the numismatic audience "...you probably know more about this than I do". The issues of the '33's and their legality are not coin issues, they are legal ones. Roger has more intimate knowledge of the trial, etc. but the evidence from all I have read (and I have read alot) is clear on a number of points: 1) Since there are no records of the 1933 coins leaving the mint directly (none missing from inventory), the only logical conclusion is that the coins were substituted at the Mint cashier's window: 33's for earlier dates. Until Roosevelt's inauguration, these were legal transactions. Almost immediately afterward, gold "outflows" were halted. There was a VERY narrow window when such transactions involving '33's could have occurred and been considered a legal transaction. Coins moved from the Coiner to the Cashier as early as March 15th, 1933, right in the midst of the period when gold coin payouts, either directly or in exchange for bullion, were being prohibited by executive decree, later codified in law. Clearly if any sort of swap happened any time after the spring of 1933, it was technically illegal. 2) McCann (the Mint cashier) and Switt MUST HAVE BEEN the participants in the swap transaction. No one really disputes this. I believe Switt has been linked to all of the 1933's ever seized by the secret service... the original 9, the farouk specimen, and the 10 langboard coins. Let's say for sake of argument that he HAD done the swap in March of 1933, when the only possibility of a legal transaction of that type might have occurred. Why then, under oath, did he disavow any knowledge of the source of the coins that had been traced to him in 1944, and state that he had no more of them? At the time, no one could prove that he was lying in any of his statements about the coins. The subsequent Langboard "discovery" of 10 additional coins proves his second statement at least, that he had no more, definitely was a lie. In my opinion, Switt's testimony is what directly destroyed any chance for legal status of the coins. Only he could have provided evidence or testimony of having legally sourced the coins he handled, and had he done so, history would have taken a different course. Did he chose not to because he was uncooperative, or because he knew the transaction was shady/illegal? He certainly knew the coins were valuable. He definitely lied that he did not have more and then hid (at least) 10 of them away in a safe deposit box for the rest of his life. And let's not forget the 9 collectors who purchased "his" coins that were forced to surrender them to the feds in the 40's and '50's. Their heirs might have benefited handsomely down the road. No one mentions them! I do not feel sorry for the Langboards. It would have been wrong for them to be enriched when other innocent parties and heirs were denied similar enrichment as a direct result of their grandfather's false testimony, if the coins in fact were procured legally. Don't get me wrong, I think it stinks that the coins are not legal to own. But I do think justice, was done in the case. No one has to agree with me. One last point. Isreal Switt died in 1990. The ten Langboard coins were "discovered" thirteen years later in 2003 (one year after the $7.5 million "farouk specimen" sale). The coins were not included in the grandfather's estate obviously. They would have made headlines... (and most likely been confiscated then). Their serendipitous "discovery" suggests to me both calculated timing and additional "storytelling" on the part of the Langbords. I personally just can't believe that Joan didn't know of the coin's existence until 2003. She was alive through the coin's entire history and took over the family business. It's a shame we will probably never hear the full true story (because it would require admission of numerous falsehoods), but it probably would be a fascinating tale and might actually make the family some honest money from the whole affair.

Is it this one? https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/book/545751

Trivia Answer: What else? the Saint Gaudens double eagle!

That must be the Greg Weinman video (counsel for the Mint). I was at that talk! He is a really nice guy.

Very Cool! I will check it out! Love Astronomy too! Coin Trivia: Name the only regular U.S. coin to show a sun disk on both sides!

Thanks Roger and Goldfimger (one of my favorite movies by the way!) I did read most of Roger's book a year or two ago when I first received it, but given my pre-existing varieties fixation, I couldn't help but focus on those elements for which I had been most hungry for information for such a long time. My very first Saint, ehat we used to call an "unc" 1924, (bought when I was teenager in 1969 for about $80) on which I noticed some odd obverse details turned out to be a doubled die obverse variety. Not until the early 2000's did I stumble across any documented evidence of this particular anomaly, and that was on the internet. Until Roger's book came out, I don't believe anyone else had ever documented it in print! Certainly neither Dave Akers, Q. David Bowers, or Walter Breen made any mention of it in their reference books that I have in my library, and it has not appeared in five editions of the Cherrypicker's guide (though I am told it will in the sixth!). So on the matter of Die Varieties, Roger's book is a revelation and certainly unprecedented. Much as I love Q. David Bowers' and others for their writings, Roger's book is to Saint Gaudens Double Eagles what the "New Horizons" space craft was to Pluto! Our first long awaited extensive "up close" look at a fascinating coin series. If I am able to give my talk it will be recorded no doubt, and in any case I will find some means to disseminate the information to interested collectors. If you are really curious, here is a link to a Newman Numismatic portal David Lisot video where I briefly discuss a "find" at the ANA convention this February in Atlanta. (From 36.37 Minutes to 39.10.) By the way, Davids videos are highly informative and the whole selection spanning decades is available for free on the portal! https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/book/581517

Hi guys! Just found this thread (thanks to an email from Roger) and would like to add kudos to the phenomenon that is Roger's Book! I was years into collecting Saint Gauden's Double Eagle (SGDE) die varieties (for which there were scant published resources available) when Heritage sent me an early copy. Best present I ever got! Suffice it to say, this was the long needed comprehensive reference to elevate the discussion of this previously under studied and often misunderstood series. Roger's accomplishment is nothing short of awesome! Gold coins generally suffer in die variety discussion circles as they are intrinsically as well as numismatically expensive for many collectors to consider beyond type acquisition. Just read the intro to the "gold" section of the Volume II Cherrypicker's guide if you don't believe me! Thanks to Roger that may change. You may note from the book that many of the later so-called "common" date Saints have interesting associated die varieties which are quite scarce by comparison with their common brethren. The 1922, (less common 1922 S), 1923, 1924, 1925, 1926, and 1928 all fall into this category. Along with the 09/08 and some re-punched mintmarks from the early years, these coins make up an affordable subset of interesting and possibly rare SGDE's available at prices close to "melt". Since collecting this series in traditional "date/mint-mark" fashion is not practical for most of us, it's nice to have alternatives, both affordable and rare, from this series upon which to focus one's collecting attention. Check out the Cherrypicker's Guide and NGC's Variety Plus page (https://www.ngccoin.com/variety-plus/united-states/gold-double-eagles/saint-gaudens-20-1907-1933/?page=1) for some details and illustrations. A new version of Volume II of TCPG is due out before the end of the year, and I have it on good authority that some new SGDE varieties will most likely be added, mainly from Roger's book! Not sure ANA's 2020 Pittsburgh convention is going to come off in August due to Covid 19, but I have requested to give a "Money Talks" review of SGDE varieties at the convention. Will post an update if it looks like it is going to happen.