First minted in 1907, the coin features an image of Lady Liberty striding forward on its obverse and an eagle in flight on its reverse. The US produced gold Saint-Gaudents Double Eagles from 1907-1933. The coin weighs just over 1 oz and contains only 0.9675 ounces of gold. The balance is copper alloy for strength and durability.
In 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt moved the country off the gold standard in hopes of bolstering an economy ravaged by the Great Depression from 1929r.
On March 9th, 1933 President issued an executive order declaring gold effectively illegal. Going forward, citizens could keep no more than five ounces. All other gold had to be exchanged at any bank for $20.67 per ounce before 1st May 1933. Anyone holding gold after that time faced a fine of $10,000 and 10 years in prison.
He said his mother felt President Roosevelt asked for the gold because the country needed it. In her mind, defying the order would be an act of treason. She wasn’t totally off base. Order 6102 took its legal basis from the 1917 Trading with the Enemy Act.
After issuing the order in March 1933 Roosevelt had the country’s major newspaper support the action with daily articles about gold hoarders. These Speculators put the nation in danger according to the media drumbeat. It’s easy to see why people took the order seriously.
The U.S. Mint’s director ordered the melting of all 1933 Double Eagles, which had been struck but never issued. Two specimens were given to the Smithsonian Institution, which now houses the coins in the National Museum of American History’s collections.
However, 20 more are known to have been rescued from melting by being stolen and found their way into the hands of collectors before later being recovered. Nine of the recovered coins were destroyed, making this one of the world’s rarest coins, with only 13 known specimens remaining—only one of which is privately owned.
Because the coin was never released to the public, it is illegal to privately own any of the 1933 double eagles, except for the Weitzman Specimen.
King Farouk of Egipt had one of them. The US Treasury went to the full extent of diplomatic limits trying to get it back. When Farouk lost power in a 1952 coup his coin disappeared.
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. 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, attempted to sell it to Secret Service agents who were posing as coin collectors. The legal proceedings lasted five years, ultimately resulting in a ground-breaking settlement that specifically allows this particular Double Eagle, nearly seventy years after its production, to be the only 1933 Double Eagle permitted to be privately owned.
Nine of those estimated 20 missing 1933 Saints surfaced in the years that followed. US treasury officials turned the missing coins into an all-out manhunt. They documented and destroyed the nine coins. This left only 13 after accounting for the two held at the Smithsonian.
The two intentionally spared coins are in the U.S. National Numismatic Collection, ten others are held in the United States Bullion Depository at Fort Knox, and the one remaining recovered coin was sold in 2002 to private collector Stuart Weitzman (who remained anonymous at the time) for US$7.59 million. The coin sold again to an anonymous buyer at auction in June 2021 for US$18.9 million, making it the most expensive coin ever sold.
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 possible imprisonment. Associate Director Pickens confirmed, upon auction the coin will be officially released for private ownership and it will become official US. 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 emit 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.
The 1933 Double Eagle is a dangerous coin. It’s dangerous to own that is. If you have one, don’t tell anybody. Possession of the coin could land you in a prison.