united-states property theft ownership currency
Assuming a one trillion dollar coin exists, and is stolen, is there are sequence of events that could lead to someone legally owning it?
<p>A funny (and seemingly legal, if absurd) proposal during the current debt ceiling debate is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trillion-dollar_coin#Legal_basis" rel="nofollow noreferrer">to mint a one trillion dollar platinum coin and deposit it with the Treasury</a> to reduce the debt below the limit. This leads to the amusing hypothetical case of someone stealing said trillion dollar coin from the Treasury, or the coin somehow going missing (gets lost in a couch and the couch is sold as-is in a federal auction).</p>
<p><strong>Are there any means by which someone could become the legal owner of this coin, and thereby have a one trillion dollar plus net worth, without actually earning one trillion dollars and buying it?</strong> I figure if it's actually stolen property, even if all statutes of limitation have passed and even if you committed no crimes in acquiring it, you'd <em>probably</em> be required to return it, but I'm not sure on this, especially in cases where you committed no crime yourself (e.g. if the auction scenario mentioned above occurred because the thieves dropped the coin on their way out of the building with the buyer legally and inadvertently acquiring the coin as part of the auctioned item).</p>
<p>We can ignore the practical issues with proving it's &quot;the real coin&quot; rather than a counterfeit; I'm just curious about the legality assuming the coin was made in some way that rendered it immune to counterfeiting (<em>handwaves explanation</em>).</p>
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<p>Yes, this is a hypothetical, but I'd be willing to bet if any such coin existed, there'd be at least one movie made that involved either stealing it or becoming an overnight trillionaire by accident, so I figured I'd get the jump on the plausibility of such a movie.</p>

<p>As current law stands, it would be property of the US Mint if coined, US Treasury, if printed as a treasury note, not federal reserve note.</p>
<p>This was decided by appellate court in regards to 1933 gold double eagles, coins that were struck, but never released to public.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/16-612-opinion-below-3d-cir.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">3rd circuit pdf</a></p>

<h2>Yes</h2>
<p>The coin is <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4508252" rel="nofollow noreferrer">currency</a>, a holder in good faith who acquired the coin for consideration is the legal owner. So, if someone steals the coin and uses it to buy something without the seller knowing the coin was stolen, then the seller would become the legal owner. As would anyone further along in a chain of buying and selling.</p>
<p>For this particular coin there are a number of obvious difficulties with this.</p>
<p>First, it’s very hard to give change for a trillion dollar coin - the largest ever <a href="https://dealroom.net/blog/successful-acquisition-examples" rel="nofollow noreferrer">purchase</a> was
the takeover of Mannesmann by Vodafone in 2000, and was worth ~$203 billion, that means you need to find $793 billion in change.</p>
<p>Second, given the uniqueness of the coin, it would be hard for anyone to argue they received it in good faith. They <em>must</em> know what it is and where it came from.</p>
<p>However, in <em>theory</em> it’s possible.</p>

<p>If the coin is lost behind the cushions of a sofa which is then sold in a “market overt” in British Columbia then (at least under BC law) the purchaser acquires a clean legal title to the sofa and the coin regardless of whether or not the seller actually had a good title, as long as the buyer (but not necessarily the seller) was acting in good faith at the time of the transaction. One could argue that they couldn’t possibly be acting in good faith if they knowingly bought the coin, but they could easily buy a sofa in good faith and find the coin later. “Markets overt” are an ancient English legal concept which has now been abolished in UK law but survives in some other common law jurisdictions.</p>

<p>A series of very-fortunate events:</p>
<ul>
<li>Criminal mastermind AJ Raffles manages to steal away the trillion
dollar coin.  He takes it home to his estate in Yorkshire and throws
it into a cardboard box along with hundreds of ancient Roman gold
coins.  He then hides that box in his henhouse.</li>
<li>Time passes.  Raffles passes away, and his material possessions are sold off.</li>
<li>Basil Baker buys the Yorkshire estate.  One day while cleaning out the
henhouse he discovers a hoard of coins!</li>
<li>Basil promptly and properly notifies his local coroner, as required under <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treasure_Act_1996" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Treasure Act 1996</a></li>
<li>As per the Act, he offers the treasure trove for sale to various museums
at the assigned price.  All decline to purchase it.</li>
<li>Basil Baker is now the legal owner of the trillion-dollar coin, free and clear.</li>
</ul>
