The State Is Not Your Friend

I currently have this as my background screen on my home PC. I have had it on my work PC at times.

I snagged it from The Walls of Samizdata 

Friends and co-workers have asked what the hell it means. I do my best to try and explain to them but some of them still don’t get it, which I guess depends on your mindset on what government is supposed to do.

But I think that keeping a set of links handy will do a better job than my direct talk. Something like this:

Feds say family has no rightful claim to 1933 ‘double eagle’ coins

PHILADELPHIA — A family that asked the U.S. Mint to authenticate 10 extremely rare coins cannot prove they were obtained legally and has no right to them, government lawyers argue in court papers.

The gold coins, 1933 “double eagles” that were never circulated, could be worth millions of dollars apiece. A comparable one sold for $7.59 million in 2002 — the highest price ever paid for a coin.

Plaintiffs Joan S. Langbord and her two sons say they discovered the cache in 2003 in a safety deposit box belonging to her late father, Philadelphia jeweler Israel Switt.

They approached the Mint the next year and agreed to turn them over to be authenticated, the Langbords say. But the Mint — after vouching for them — refuses to return them on grounds they were stolen U.S. property.

“Plaintiffs fail … to plead any fact to support their implication that Switt legally obtained the 1933 Double Eagles,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Joel M. Sweet wrote in the brief filed Friday. “(That) supports a reasonable inference that Switt obtained the 1933 Double Eagles knowing that they were stolen property.”

Langbord, 76, still works at her father’s store on Jeweler’s Row, a few blocks from the Mint. She was out of the country Tuesday and could not be reached for comment, a business partner said.

In her December 2006 suit, she and sons Roy Langbord of New York City and David Langbord of Virginia Beach, Va., ask for the return of the coins or a settlement of up to $40 million.

At a minimum, they say, they deserve a trial over the alleged seizure.

Prosecutors argue there was no forfeiture involved because the Langbords never had rightful ownership in the first place.

“A thief cannot convey good title to stolen property,” Sweet wrote.

Just as the 1934 FCA turned the common firearm owner into a criminal (don’t forget that they tried to include handguns at the time as well), FDR’s socialization of the US Monetary system turned anyone who owned a particular coin into, as Assistant US Attourney Joel Sweet put it, “A Thief”.

I would not be surprised if Sweet thinks the Langbord’s should feel lucky that he isn’t prosecuting them.