To begin my story about 1967, I return to our
lawsuit against the Treasury challenging its rulings about importing gold coins.
In early January the hearing judge came back with an
opinion that we were correct in asking for a repeal of the Gold Coin Import License. We were very happy, but the
Treasury Department’s Office of Gold and Silver Operations (OGSO) was not. A day
or so after the judge’s ruling
came down, the OGSO delivered a document to our attorney that said:
“Notwithstanding the rulings of the hearing judge, application for the license
is denied.”
We were shocked. We went through the entire hearing
and won the case and still we were denied a license. As our attorney explained
it to us, the Government Office by their denial
were making us appeal to a higher court. We said we would like to continue, and our lawyer began the process of
filing an appeal stating that the OGSO was being “arbitrary and capricious.”
About a week later, the OGSO sent an answer to our lawyers, in effect suggesting that we
should not pursue the case as they were working on some changes. Our lawyers
advised us to hold back from further action which we did.
However, our client in the Netherlands got very sick, and could not wait any longer. He
decided to sell the collection overseas where no rulings would delay it. We were heartbroken but understood that his
health was more important than his desire to have Stack’s sell his coins in
America. We appreciated that he had waited as long as he had.
During late spring 1967, the Professional Numismatic Guild (PNG) had a meeting during
a New York Convention where a member of
the OGSO delivered a talk to the membership. At the meeting, an under director
of the OGSO explained why regulations were put into force and the results that
had come from the regulations. Then he announced that as the intent of the
import regulations had been satisfied, licenses would no longer be required for
genuine gold coins dated before 1933 to be imported into the United States.
So Stack’s had succeeded
in its goal of ending the requirement for export licenses. Unfortunately we had
lost the collection that had motivated us to go into battle in the first place,
as the delay in getting to this point was just too extensive. We did get a rousing
cheer from the PNG membership!
After
this final ruling, our buying and receiving from overseas was easier again, and
we could better serve our clients in building and selling their collections.
