2 Arrested in Attempt to Sell Rare U.S. Gold Coin
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NEW YORK — Secret Service agents arrested two coin dealers as they were preparing to sell a rare gold coin for $1.5 million.
Stephen Charles Fenton, 43, of North Harrow, England, and Jasper Parrino, 49, of Lee’s Summit, Mo., were arrested last week when they met with a buyer who turned out to be a Secret Service agent, authorities said Monday.
It is illegal to own an Augustus Saint-Gaudens double eagle $20 coin because it never went into circulation. The Philadelphia Mint produced 445,500 in 1933, but President Franklin D. Roosevelt took the United States off the gold standard and the coins were never put into circulation. Most were melted into bullion, but it is believed that some mint employees snuck a few out.
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