A gold coin that was minted in 1933 called the Double Eagle was auctioned in 2021 for $18.9 million. Its value is centered in history.
“It had sold originally in 2002 for a touch over $7 million after it came to the market. And then recently it sold for almost $19 million. And that stands out as the most valuable United States coin of all times,” said David Vagi, the Director of NGC Ancients.
When the auction was announced in March 2021, the 1933 Double Eagle coin was expected to be auctioned for $10 million to $15 million. However, it exceeded expectations during the auction held in New York.
The coin has great value for collectors, since it survived a historical event for which it should not exist today. This is the only 1933 Double Eagle coin that can have a legal private owner in the United States.
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“The Double Eagle, which is a $20 gold piece, was minted in 1933. And this is right at the point when private ownership of gold became outlawed in the United States. In general, you could maintain small bits of gold, but general gold ownership was outlawed,” Vagi said.
In fact, in 1933 President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued an executive order limiting the possession of gold coins worth more than $100. Additionally, the United States Congress passed the Gold Reserve Act of 1934, which made the circulation and possession of gold coins illegal, with the exception of those in the hands of collectors. People who owned gold coins had to return them and exchange them for another type of currency.
The 1933 Double Eagle was minted before the Reserve Act of 1934 and most gold coins were returned and melted down by the end of that year.
“It is no longer illegal, but at the time it was, and the US mint had struck these coins, just like it struck them in previous years, and then the word comes down that no more. So only a few of these coins escaped and only one is actually legal to own by any private citizen,” Vagi explained.
The Double Eagle coin is not the only one that is part of the United States gold coin period. The country “issued a tremendous number of gold coins in the 18th and 19th and early 20th century, just untold millions of them. Some of them do survive and people love to collect them to this day,” Vagi said.
However, the Double Eagle was the last gold coin to be minted in the United States, ending an era that began in 1795, according to the National Museum of American History.
Although most of the Double Eagle coins were melted down, only two of these coins were authorized to be in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, but other Double Eagles mysteriously continued in circulation.
A copy of the gold coin was mistakenly, but legally exported by King Farouk of Egypt in 1944. It was lost for more than 40 years and in 1996 it reappeared in the hands of British coin collector who was arrested by Secret Service agents in New York.
The Double Eagle was part of a long legal battle. Finally, in 2001, it was resolved that the coin could be legally sold at auction. In 2002, the Double Eagle was auctioned for $7.5 million and ended up in the hands of millionaire Stuart Weitzman, according to Smithsonian Magazine.
Therefore, the 1933 Double Eagle coin is a historical piece of great value for collectors, not only because it is made of gold, but because it is possibly only one that is still in circulation and the one and only that can be owned legally.
“You can imagine you have a lot of people interested in these $20 gold pieces, these double eagles. If you want a complete set -and that is something that is very important with the United States and world coins to get a complete set-, if you want that, you must own this 1933 double eagle,” Vagi said.
As the only coin of its type in circulation, the 1933 Double Eagle has become a precious piece that exceeds its face value and sought after by collectors.
“Coins are a private obsession,” Vagi said.
Read this article in Spanish here.
