Bellingcat Challenge #36 "Funny Money" Writeup
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This article was automatically translated from Japanese by AI.
Challenge
Bellingcat Challenge #36 “Funny Money”
In 1933, a batch of rare coins was struck but never issued for use as currency. While nearly half a million were minted, only one coin of its type was made legal for circulation. Sold in the last decade for almost $20 million, all other versions of the coin, minted in 1933, were never officially released and were ordered to be melted down.
Despite this, a small number of these coins were not destroyed and were acquired by coin dealers under suspicious circumstances. The descendants of one of these dealers took the government to court over whether they could be considered the rightful owners of some of these stolen coins.
What is the name of the attorney that argued the appeal on behalf of this family?
Solution
Searching for "1933 coin rare" identified the coin as the U.S. 1933 Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle gold coin.
Further searching led to a Coin World article containing the phrase the Langbord family through their attorney, Barry Berke. However, Barry Berke was not accepted.
To find more precise information, I searched for "Double Eagle Coins Langbord appeal" and found a United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit opinion.
The document lists Barry H. Berke and Kevin J. Kotch under Attorneys for Appellants. Because Barry H. Berke is specifically marked [Argued], the full name of the attorney who argued the appeal is Barry H. Berke.
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Barry H. Berke