Sunday, March 5, 1933

Didn't go to church today. It was raining. Went over to Raifers and played pinochle in evening.

Close-up of one of the ten 1933 Saint-Gaudens double eagles, or $20 gold
pieces, that the U.S. Mint seized — the word in the official press release was "recovered"
— from the heirs of Israel Switt, a Philadelphia jeweler who allegedly possessed 25 of them in the
1930s. President Roosevelt had banned the private possession of gold before any 1933-dated $20 gold
 pieces had been issued, and an unknown number of them "were illegally spirited out of the [Mint]" in
Philadelphia. Twenty of Switt’s contraband coins are accounted for, but five remain missing to this day.