1933 Double Eagle: The World's Most Valuable Coin (Part 1)

 

[The story that begins below (and will continue on Sunday) is of no particular consequence—unless, of course, you are a numismatist—a coin collector.  It’s all about what may be the rarest coin in the world, an American Double Eagle 20-dollar gold piece minted in Philadelphia in 1933.

[But it does hold some interest as a tale, because, as New York Times reporter Glenn Collins says below, it has elements of The Maltese Falcon and The Lord of the Rings.  I think you’ll enjoy it—even if you never collected old pennies.]

“THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT TO SELL
THE FAMED 1933 DOUBLE EAGLE,
THE MOST VALUABLE GOLD COIN IN THE WORLD 

[Below is a United States Mint press release of 7 February 2002 (https://www.usmint.gov/news/press-releases/20020207-the-united-states-government-to-sell-the-famed-1933-double-eagle-the-most-valuable-gold-coin-in-the-world) announcing the auction of the only 1933 Double Eagle coin that’s legal tender. It traveled a “fur piece” to get to this sale and passed through many hands, some honest, some crooked.]

United States Mint Selects Sotheby’s and Stack’s to Sell Renowned Coin on July 30

New York, NY — On July 30, 2002 Sotheby’s and Stack’s will offer for sale for the first time, on the behalf of the United States Government, the most valuable gold coin in the world, the fabled and elusive 1933 Double Eagle twenty dollar gold coin.

[Sotheby’s is a British-founded multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. The renowned auction house was established in London in 1744 by Samuel Baker (1722?-79), a bookseller, under his own name. The name Sotheby appeared in the company’s title, Leigh and Sotheby, in 1767; it became simply Sotheby’s in 2006.

[Founded in 1933 as Stack’s Rare Coins, the numismatic company Stack’s Bowers Galleries, renamed in 2011 when Stack’s merged with Bowers and Merena Auctions, is America’s oldest rare coin auctioneer and dealership. Specializing in U.S., world, and ancient coins, tokens, medals, and currency, its first auction occurred in 1935.]

This is the first time that the United States Government has authorized private ownership of a 1933 Double Eagle.

After it was struck in 1933, President [Franklin D.] Roosevelt [1882-1945; 32nd President of the United States: 1933-45], in one of his first acts as President, took the United States off the gold standard [20 April 1933] in an effort to help the struggling American economy out of the Great Depression [1929-39]. All of the 1933 Double Eagles were ordered destroyed, but ten specimens are known to have escaped into private hands. However, as they had never been of[f]icially “issued” as United States coinage, they cannot be legally owned.

As a result, nine of the ten specimens were seized by, or turned in to, the United States Secret Service in the 1940s and 50s and were subsequently destroyed.

The remaining 1933 Double Eagle, which will be offered, surfaced in 1996 and was seized by the United States Secret Service [8 February 1996]. The coin was returned to the United States Mint as a result of the Department of Justice’s settlement of a forfeiture action [April 1996], and in that landmark legal settlement, this one coin became the only 1933 Double Eagle now or ever authorized for private ownership by the United States Government.

[The U.S. Secret Service was established in 1865 initially to investigate the counterfeiting of U.S. currency. (The agency has protected U.S. presidents and presidential candidates since 1901, after the assassination of President William McKinley [1843-1901; 25th President of the United States: 1897-1901].) Until 2003, the Service was part of the Department of the Treasury; from that year till now, it’s been part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.]

The coin will be sold in a single lot auction at Sotheby’s York Avenue premises in New York on July 30, 2002 [auction results will be in an upcoming post], and carries an estimate of $4/6 million [$7.1/10.7 million in 2025].

“This storied coin has been the center of international numismatic intrigue for more than seventy years, said Mint Director Henrietta Holsman Fore [b. 1948; 37th Director of the United States Mint: 2001-05]. “The Mint has certified the authenticity of this legendary 1933 Double Eagle. We will officially transfer full, legal ownership of the coin to the highest bidder at this historic sale.”

“We expect that this coin may become the most valuable coin in the world and one of the most sought—after rarities in history” said David Pickens [b. 1946], Associate Director [for Numismatics], United States Mint.

David Redden [1949-2024; Sotheby’s auctioneer: 1974-2016], Vice Chairman of Sotheby’s [2000-16], and Lawrence R. Stack [b. ca. 1952], Managing Director of Stack’s, said, “The story of this coin is one of the great numismatic mysteries of all time whose final chapter will be written with this auction. Currently held at United States Gold Bullion Depository at Fort Knox, Kentucky, the coin has an intriguing history which includes seizure by the United States Government, a five-year trial with a landmark resolution and a possible connection to a royal Egyptian Collection dispersed in the 1950s. It is an enormous privilege to be asked by the United States Government to undertake the sale of the ‘Holy Grail’ of the coin collecting world.”

1933 Double Eagles

The twenty dollar gold coin, known as a Double Eagle, was a child of the California Gold Rush [1848-55], and the massive shipments of ore sent back East. The first Double Eagles were issued to the public in 1850. In 1907, at the behest of President Theodore Roosevelt [1858-1919; 26th President of the United States: 1901-09], the denomination was radically redesigned by famed American sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens [1848-1907; sculptor of the Beaux-Arts generation (ca. 1885-1930)]. These were struck until 1933 when production of the Double Eagle was discontinued along with all other United States gold coins as a result of Executive Order 6260 issued by President Franklin Roosevelt which, in an effort to aid the struggling American economy, prohibited banks from paying out gold.

According to the United States Government, any Double Eagle struck in 1933 could not be legally owned, because none were officially released to the public. In early 1944, prior to the government’s discovery of the missing 1933 Double Eagles, the Royal Legation of Egypt presented a 1933 Twenty Dollar Double Eagle to the Treasury Department, seeking a license to export the coin to Egypt for King Farouk’s [Farouk I; 1920-65; penultimate King of Egypt and the Sudan: 1936-52] collection. The export license was required for virtually all gold coins under the extensive gold restrictions [Executive Order 6102, known as the Gold Confiscation Order] that had been in effect since March of 1933. Not yet recognizing the significance of an unissued 1933 coin, the Department of the Treasury inadvertently issued the export license and the King Farouk specimen was exported out of the United States.

[Gold restrictions in effect in the U.S. starting in March 1933:

•  6 March 1933: President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Presidential Proclamation 2039 which declared a nationwide “bank holiday” (the closure of banks to curtail or prevent a bank run) and, shortly after, used the authority of the Emergency Banking Act of 1933, signed on 9 March, to restrict gold movements. One of the act’s key provisions, this gave the government power to control gold exports and prohibit financial institutions from converting currency and deposits into gold coins and ingots.

•  5 April 1933: President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 6102 (known as the Gold Confiscation Order), explicitly forbidding the hoarding of gold coin, gold bullion, and gold certificates.

•  Mandatory surrender: The order required most Americans to turn in their gold holdings to the Federal Reserve by 1 May 1933, in exchange for paper currency at a fixed rate of $20.67 per ounce.

[The private ownership of gold was legalized again in the United States in 1974 (Pub. L. 93–373, known as the Gold Ownership Act, which went into effect 31 December 1974).]

Within weeks Government officials came to recognize the significance of the 1933 Double Eagle, and discovered the existence of nine other 1933 Double Eagles that illegally left the Mint without ever being issued. Over the next ten years, these nine 1933 Double Eagles were seized or voluntarily turned in to the Department of the Treasury, and were subsequently destroyed.

Possible King Farouk Provenance

In 1954, a 1933 Double Eagle appeared at auction in Cairo, Egypt; Sotheby’s, acting on behalf of the new Republic of Egypt, was selling the astonishing collections assembled by the deposed King Farouk. [Farouk was overthrown in the Egyptian revolution of 1952 at the end of July, under the leadership of General Mohamed Naguib and Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser.] King Farouk was one of the greatest coin collectors of all time, though it was not until this auction that the world learned of his remarkable achievement — the collection comprised more than 8,500 gold coins and the sale itself took nine days. Lot 185 in that auction contained a 1933 Double Eagle. Learning of the offering, the United States Treasury successfully requested that the coin be withdrawn from the sale. After this, the whereabouts of the coin remained a mystery for nearly half a century. It has been suggested, in sworn depositions, that the present coin is the King Farouk coin, and there is significant evidence that it was part of the famed collection, including the fact that no other 1933 Double Eagle is known to exist or has ever been identified.

The location of the present coin, since its minting in 1933, had been a mystery until 1996 when it was seized at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York as respected and leading British coin dealer, Stephen Fenton [b. ca. 1952], attempted to sell it to Secret Service agents who were posing as coin collectors. The legal proceedings which lasted five years, ultimately resulting in a ground–breaking settlement which specifically allows this particular Double Eagle, nearly seventy years after its production, to be the only 1933 Double Eagle permitted to be privately owned [see the New York Times article below].

The Auction

Part of the intrigue surrounding the coin is the fact that it has existed in limbo for nearly seventy years. In the eyes of the United States Treasury, up until now, the coin has had no monetary value and its possession could result in a possible imprisonment. Associate Director Pickens confirmed, “upon auction the coin will be officially released for private ownership and it will become official U.S. coinage. At the sale, the final purchase price will be increased by $20, which will go to the United States Treasury General Fund. In other words, the United States Government will be “issuing” one 1933 Double Eagle for the first (and only) time at this historic sale.”

The new owner of the coin will be given an official Certificate of Transfer that makes the coin legal to own. Given the complex issues surrounding the elusive 1933 Double Eagle, this Certificate of Transfer, will be itself historically significant.

Sotheby’s and Stack’s

This sale represents a partnership of Sotheby’s, whose history of coin auctions stretches back to 1755, and Stack’s, an American numismatic firm whose first coin sale was held in 1935. Most recently, in October 2001, Sotheby’s and Stack’s worked together to sell the fabled Dallas Bank Collection for $7.8 million [worth $12.8 million today].

[The Dallas Bank Collection was an auction in New York City on 29 and 30 October 2001 of United States gold coins collected by the late H. Jeff Browning (1933-78).]

[This press release from the U.S. Mint is identical in terms of text to that issued on the same date by Sotheby’s, with a few differences in format.  I have a print-out of the Sotheby’s PR, which I was going to post, but it’s no longer online.]

*  *  *  *
“UNIQUE COIN, AND UNIQUE MYSTERY”
by Glenn Collins 

[Glenn Collins’s preview of the upcoming auction ran in the New York Times on 19 April 2002 (Sec. B [“The Metro Section”]).  His was a somewhat more fanciful telling than that of the U.S. Mint, but I guess that’s to be expected.]

Back From a King’s Vault, the Lone 1933 Double Eagle

It is a $20 gold piece from 1933 that was ordered destroyed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt [1882-1945]. Stolen from the United States Mint, it was exported for a king after the government committed the bumble of all bumbles, was contested in an interminable legal donnybrook, and even came close to being lost in the destruction of the World Trade Center.

It is the 1933 double eagle, and it could fetch a record price for any coin when it is auctioned in July [2002 – the 30th, at Sotheby’s in Manhattan] for an estimated $4 million to $6 million [$7.1-10.7 million today].

“This is a wondrous story. It’s historic and mysterious in lots of ways,” said David Pickens [b. 1946], associate director [for numismatics] of the United States Mint, which currently has possession of the double eagle.

Today [Friday, 19 April 2002] at 10 a.m., when the doors open at Sotheby’s in Manhattan for the first public viewing [19 April; 6-9, 13-16, and 20-24 May] of the only such 1933 coin that has ever legally been offered for sale, visitors will see a 34-millimeter-wide, 0.96-ounce stamped disk that is 90 percent gold and 10 percent copper. Its metallic worth is only about $270 [about $480 today], and it has come close to being destroyed many times.

“This coin has had nine lives,” said David Redden [1949-2024], a vice chairman at Sotheby’s, who will serve as the auctioneer.

The Dashiell Hammett-like chronicle of the coin — a composite of “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Maltese Falcon” — has only recently come to light, thanks to several decades’ worth of documents that were unearthed during a five-year legal battle over its ownership.

[Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961) was the popular writer of detective novels and short stories, many of which were turned into equally popular films. He created the private eye Sam Spade, best known from the 1930 novel The Maltese Falcon, filmed in 1941 with Humphrey Bogart (1899-1957) starring as the detective in an iconic performance.  Both the novel and movie were renowned for the many twists, turns, and surprises of the mystery’s plot.

[The Lord of the Rings, also known as The Ring Trilogy, is an epic fantasy novel in three volumes written by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien (1892-1973). Published in 1954 and 1955, the trilogy is a multifarious mix of diverse influences, including religion, mythology, and even philology all worked into the epic in an intricately detailed fantasy world of strange and fantastic characters. The saga takes almost two decades to unfold. Among other adaptations, the books were made into a successful trio of live action films (2001, 2002, 2003) by New Zealander Peter Jackson (b. 1961).]

The 1933 double eagle “has the potential,” Mr. Pickens said, “of being the most valuable coin ever struck.” But only if it sells for more than $4.14 million [$7.9 million in 2025] — the price paid for an 1804 United States silver dollar in 1999, the most ever paid for a coin at auction.

No one knows if it will fetch that much, “but the coin market has been strong, which tends to be the case when the stock market is down,” said Dr. Ute Wartenberg [b. 1963], executive director of the American Numismatic Society [1999-2019; elected president in 2020] in Manhattan, which is not involved in the sale.

“It is a fabled coin,” she said of the 1933 double eagle. Its rarity, she said, is a function of the highly unusual circumstances of its sale, which grew out of the coin’s highly unusual history: it was originally pilfered from the Treasury and never certified as legal currency.

As part of an out-of-court settlement, the Mint has agreed to declare the coin the only 1933 double eagle ever to be legally issued by the United States government [USA v. 1933 Double Eagle, settlement, 25 January 2001]. This will “monetize” the coin (make it legal tender) when the winning collector pays not just the auction price but also “a fee of $20 for the face value of the coin,” said Mr. Pickens of the Mint.

To collectors, therefore, this 1933 double eagle will be distinct from the only two other 1933 double eagles believed to be in existence, at the Smithsonian Institution. They are unmonetized specimens that are officially deemed “worthless chattel” in government documents.

This could be crucial to collectors because “they may spend a lot on what they think is an exclusive coin,” Dr. Wartenberg said, “only to learn later that others have been discovered, lowering the value.

“But the Mint is saying this coin is the only one that it is legal to own. That means, if another one turns up in an attic, the Secret Service will seize it.”

Further endorsing the coin’s value is the Mint itself. It has studied the coin microscopically and matched it with one of the original dies used to strike it, “and is certifying that this coin is genuine,” Mr. Pickens said. “It’s not a counterfeit.”

The tale began in 1792, when the fledgling United States government deemed [Coinage Act of April 2, 1792] that all gold and silver coins would bear the depiction of an eagle (although Benjamin Franklin [1706-90; American polymath: a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher] favored a turkey). For 58 subsequent years the highest-denomination coin was the $10 gold piece. Following the Gold Rush boom, $20 gold pieces were issued in 1850. They were called double eagles because they were worth double the face value of the original $10 gold piece.

In 1907, the double eagle was radically redesigned by the sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens [1848-1907], thanks to President Theodore Roosevelt’s [1858-1919] desire for a high-relief American coin that would be as beautiful as those of the ancient Greeks.

[In numismatics, “high relief” on a coin refers to a specialized striking process where the design elements are raised significantly above the coin's surface, creating a three-dimensional, sculptural effect. This differs from standard coins, which have designs that are less raised. High relief coins are known for their intricate detail and depth, and they are often more valuable and collectible due to their unique features.]

When in 1933 President Franklin Roosevelt took the United States off the gold standard by issuing Executive Order 6260 [5 April], the year’s production of double eagles was ordered destroyed, save for two that were reserved for the Smithsonian. All the rest were thought to have been melted down.

Then, echoing “The Fellowship of the Ring,” with its “nine rings to bind them,” nine double eagles mysteriously surfaced during the mid-1940’s and 1950’s. Through the years, they were seized by the United States Secret Service from those who tried to unload them; ultimately all nine were melted down.

But in early 1944, according to government documents, before the discovery of any missing 1933 coins, the royal legation of Egypt turned up with one; it sought a license to export it to enhance the collection of King Farouk [1920-65]. It is believed that the Department of the Treasury issued the license inadvertently. “There is no evidence that money changed hands,” Mr. Redden said. The approval was expedited, he said, because it was intended for a head of state.

Only weeks later, the export-license faux pas was discovered. By then, the coin had left the country by diplomatic pouch.

In 1954, after King Farouk was deposed [1952], his collections were sold at auction on behalf of the new Republic of Egypt. When the United States government learned that Lot 185 contained a 1933 double eagle, the Treasury requested that the coin be removed from the auction, and it was, but it vanished.

It is this coin, Mr. Redden said, that Sotheby’s believes has survived. After the Farouk auction, the coin is thought to have stayed in Egypt until it came into the hands of a London dealer, Stephen Fenton, in 1995.

A year later, Mr. Fenton tried to sell the coin for $1.6 million [$3.3 million today] in Manhattan in a room at the Waldorf-Astoria. United States Treasury agents posing as collectors seized the coin.

In the legal battle for ownership that ensued, Mr. Fenton’s lawyers argued that the United States government had given written permission for the coin to enter a private collection. “From a legal standpoint, things were muddy enough for there to be a settlement,” Mr. Redden said.

Mr. Pickens cautioned that although the Mint can certify the coin’s authenticity, it cannot certify any of the other milestones in its trajectory. “But we understand that there are significant historic documents that would lead it to conform” with the Sotheby’s outline of its history, he said.

“There are still many mysteries,” said David E. Tripp [b. 1951], a special consultant to Sotheby’s who once ran its coin department. He was given access to court documents, legal briefs and internal Treasury Department memorandums to write the exhibition catalog for Sotheby’s.

Government records point to a real-life possible culprit: George A. McCann, who ultimately became the cashier of the Mint. He is believed to be the only employee who had physical access to the 1933 double eagles that were purloined.

Mr. McCann was never charged in the disappearance of the double eagles because of the statute of limitations, but he did serve a year in prison for having embezzled unrelated silver coinage.

The proceeds from the Sotheby’s sale will be divided equally between the United States Government and Mr. Fenton. The portion going to the Mint will be put “in the general fund of the Treasury Department to reduce the national debt,” Mr. Pickens said.

During the long years of legal wrangling [1996-2001], the coin resided in a Treasury Department vault in 7 World Trade Center. It was only removed to the bullion vaults at Fort Knox, Ky., when the court case was settled, in late January 2001, less than eight months before 7 World Trade Center was destroyed following the terrorist attack.

The coin’s current home is the United States Mint and bullion depository at West Point, N.Y., and it was delivered to Sotheby’s on Tuesday [16 April 2002] by Robert A. Beck, chief of the United States Mint police at West Point, and Detective Ruby Johnson.

The coin’s condition is exquisite, though not utterly perfect since it was a production coin that, after its manufacture, jostled with 250 other double eagles in a cloth bag and picked up some microscopic scratches.

“But its condition is less significant when it is the only coin of its kind,” Mr. Redden said.

Sotheby’s, which has been auctioning coins since the 18th century, is, unsurprisingly, hoping to cultivate the image of the coin as a numismatic sensation. Its auction partner, which will share the customary 15 percent buyer’s premium, is Stack’s Rare Coins, which is spearheading the marketing effort among coin collectors.

To maximize the pool of buyers, the Mint and Sotheby’s are putting the coin on view today in Sotheby’s 10th floor exhibition galleries.

The coin will be shown during Sotheby’s sale of Impressionist art in May, then at the Long Beach Coin and Collectibles Show in California, then in a gallery at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in Lower Manhattan. Finally, it will be put on view at Sotheby’s before its July 30 sale.

Why then? It coincides with the American Numismatic Convention [31 July-4 August 2002], the largest coin show of the year, which will attract more than 20,000 coin collectors to New York City. “All of them may not necessarily be able to afford it,” Mr. Redden said.

And will the double eagle sell at its estimated price? “All you need,” said Mr. Pickens of the Mint, “is two people who want it.”

[Glenn Collins (b. ca. 1945), a prolific and longtime reporter for the New York Times from 1970 till about 2020 (his byline seems to have disappeared that year, but I can’t confirm that he retired after 50 years), and covered a lot of different fields from the arts—he was the Times’s only circus reporter for most of his career at the paper—restaurants, business, and “lifestyles.”

[Collins, who’d be about 80 now, also served as an editor (1970-80) and columnist (“Endpaper,” 1973-77) at the New York Times Magazine.  Since the Times, he seems to have continued writing for other publications, including online outlets.  Before the Times, Collins was an editor at the Columbia University Forum, a reporter for the Paterson, New Jersey, Morning Call, and a writer for the Associated Press.

[A lengthy account of the whole story of the Double Eagles, first struck in 1849, is online in “The Ultimate Coin: The 1933 Double Eagle” on the Sotheby’s website.  It’s loaded with additional details, so it’s very long (with footnotes).  You’ll need to scroll down a bit to find the story.

[“1933 Double Eagle: The World’s Most Valuable Coin” will continue on Sunday, 8 June, with Part 2.  The story of the unique coin has a little more to reveal, especially the results of the Sotheby’s auction.  I hope you will return to Rick On Theater for the rest of the tale.]