GoldFinger1969

Yup...the EO was April 5th, but Assistant Treasurer Douglas confirmed it on April 12th.

Roger, if that vault with the 1928's was SEALED and not just locked, it's hard to believe that it got penetrated. The procedures to protect seem pretty solid except for when the Vault Custodian could get in-or-out as 1 person. Hmmm.....maybe him ? I'm sure he was looked at.

New Direction Question: Just curious, for those of you who have bought Saint-Gaudens DE's....what is the most expensive coin you have ever purchased (or sold, if you're a dealer) ? Since I started this sub-thread within the thread , I'll say mine is a 1923-D MS66 for $3,500 at FUN this past January. Other than that, pretty much commons tied to the price of gold the last 5 years or so.

So it seems like they DID have some procedures in place.....makes that 1928 theft all the more curious....HAD to be an inside job. I saw that a 1928 bag for DE's (that you wrote the piece for) went for like $5,000 on HA.....are old bags common or pretty rare, anybody know ? Haven't seen that many up for auction. I would guess they got destroyed/thrown out when the Mints melted all the coins. Another lost treasure....

No security cameras in the 1930's.....was it possible for 1 person to access the vault ? Or only 1 person if it was a high-ranking person ? Otherwise, I would think you'd need 2 people each with their separate keys. They had to have had some security precautions. I would think very few (1 or 2) of the top people could access the Vault solo....everybody else you figure needed the cooperation of a 2nd person with a 2nd key or something. At least that's what I would have thought the Mint had in place. I can't believe that they wanted any 1 person with a key to a Masterlock and chain to be able to access hundreds of millions of dollars in gold coins. If any 1 person working the Mint could access the Vault, then I'm surprised there weren't more thefts !

Why would eliminating Dressel's liability have anything to do with the shortage on the Mint records ? It's short 250 Double Eagles regardless...only question is if the government wants to ask Dressel for $5,000.....right ? I guess Dressel just ASSUMED no gold was missing when he assumed command. I don't think they did an audit before he came in and miscounted.....he just took the previous guy's word for it. But I guess counting thousands of bags of gold was pretty time consuming and they couldn't spend the time on it.

Yup, I misspoke.....Americans were KO'd from holding gold for the most part, but we still had a modified gold standard and it was re-asserted at Bretton Woods after the War.

Bank of England was THE CENTRAL BANK for virtually the entire 1800's.

Darn....it's a real interesting topic. And from my perspective it related to all the BS involving the 1933's.....SOB's know "for a fact" that all 1933's were "stolen" even though the gold books balanced. Balanced...by the same clowns who said the books balanced while missing 250 of the 1928 DE's. ....... 4,000 views ? I'm not surprised. Your book is outstanding....lots of interesting topics to discuss (the 1907 HR, 1933 DEs, 1928 theft)...and your chiming in to give the experts POV adds to the thread. Great job, Roger ! I wonder how many MORE people will buy your book who aren't aware of it unless they scan HA as opposed to Amazon. If HA is smart, they'll email everyone who has bought, watched, or punched up a search on their site for a Saint-Gaudens DE and let them know about the availability of the book.

That's weird: exchanges (gold-for-gold) OK until April 5th but net payouts (I guess gold for paper or bullion ?) a week later ? But as you say, nothing was really fixed at that time. FWIW, I would love for you to post here or on another (new) thread about the theft of the 1928 DE's or more about the plan to store a bag or two each of the various mintages. Even just posting any discussions posted as letters, if that's all there is. Read your write-up on the 1928 DE's posted at HA and it was great. Just a thought........

Thanks RWB.....you wonder what was going on in the minds of the mint personnel.....we're going off the gold standard...no more gold payouts...no more coin exchanges......and they still are striking/minting hundreds of thousands of 1933's into April and May !!!?? Don't tell me someone there didn't say "What are the odds we are gonna have to melt all these down in a few months or years...whatta waste !!!!??"

Thanks Roger...I re-read the section on the 1933's and it was alot clearer the 2nd (or 3rd !) time I read it. I understand now how 43 1933's could be available as early as March 4th (when Hoover was still president for a few hours !). Do you know what is the correct date when coin-for-coin exchanges ended ? Was it April 5th or April 12th ? Any reason why a month after the March 7th letter authorizing coin-for-coin someone at the Mint or Treasury would have said that even this would no longer be permitted ? Is there an actual document on this that follows FDR's EO? I would think that once we went off the gold standard and it was apparent that no more gold coins (or at least Double Eagles) would be minted that the 1933's would be collectors items as the last one's ever struck (at least for many many years). So you'd think they'd allow coin-for-coin not only for collectors but for any of the public who wanted a 1933 (or other year) using their 5 coin allottment.

Find the 2 bags yet ? Seriously, any thoughts on that discrepancy ?

On Page 567...the total "delivered" for the 1933 Saints sums to 446,000...shouldn't it be 445,500 or 445,543 ?

I thought it stopped after the 1907 HR for some reason. All I know is I can't see the lettering on any of my graded Saints. And I thought for some reason that was one of the selling points of the 2009 UHR -- they had the technology to do edge lettering without it slowing down the process a ton. I remember your early chapters talking about how cumbersome doing the edge lettering was on the 1907's. I guess I just assumed it stopped after that. Guess I was wrong.........