Unique Coin, and Unique Mystery

The April 19, 2002 issue of The New York Times featured an article entitled, "Unique Coin, and Unique Mystery." The article discusses the history of a $20 gold piece, a 1933 Double Eagle, that the United States government claimed was stolen from the Philadelphia Mint over 60 years ago. All specimens of the coin were ordered melted down after President Roosevelt took the U.S. off of the gold standard. The coin was inadvertently exported to be part of the collection of King Farouk of Egypt in early 1944, and the coin disappeared after the 1954 deposition of the King. The coin finally surfaced in the hands of a London rare coin dealer, who was arrested for attempting to sell the coin in 1996. After successfully obtaining the dismissal of the criminal charges, Kramer Levin Litigation partner Barry Berke, and Litigation associates Mark Merriweather and Lauren Freeman-Bosworth represented the coin dealer in a protracted civil forfeiture proceeding in which the government sought the return of the coin on the theory that it was illegal to own. Four days before a jury trial was scheduled to commence, a settlement was reached whereby it was agreed that this 1933 Double Eagle, which is the only specimen legal to own and believed to be the most valuable coin in the world, would be auctioned with the proceeds of the sale divided between our client and the government.