Bellingcat Open Source Challenge - Funny Money
About Bellingcat Open Source Challenge
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Funny Money
This OSINT challenge is from the section Cultural Confusion. This puzzle was created by Lynda Albertson, ARCA.
In 1933, a batch of rare coins was struck but never issued for use as currency. While nearly half a million were minted, only one coin of its type was made legal for circulation. Sold in the last decade for almost $20 million, all other versions of the coin, minted in 1933, were never officially released and were ordered to be melted down.
Despite this, a small number of these coins were not destroyed and were acquired by coin dealers under suspicious circumstances. The descendants of one of these dealers took the government to court over whether they could be considered the rightful owners of some of these stolen coins.
What is the name of the attorney that argued the appeal on behalf of this family?
Walkthrough
- To get more contextual background information for this research, I used the
1933 coinon Google, and visited this Wikipedia page 1933 double eagle.
From the title of this Wikipedia post, I now know that this coin has the name 1933 double eagle coin. After reading I know that the legal battle is between the Langbord family and the U.S. federal government.
- I used the following search term on Google
1933 double eagle appeal, and I found this article Langbord family loses in 1933 double eagle case on Coin World.
After reading this article, I learned that the attorney Barry Berke is arguing the appeal on behalf of the Langlords. However, this information did not resolve the challenge.
- After using the Google Dorks
site:coinworld.com 1933 double eagle appealI saw the the article Court of Appeals hears 1933 double eagle case. This article has the answer to solve this challenge.
The attorney who argued the appeal on behalf of the Langbord family for the 1933 double eagle coins was Barry H. Berke. He represented the family during the appeals process, including oral arguments before the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, and was prominently involved in the legal battle over the ownership of the coins.
The answer: Barry H. Berke