The 1933 double eagle $20 gold coin became the most expensive coin ever sold in June 2021 when it was auctioned for $18.9 million.
But when the U.S. Mint first produced the coin in 1933, it wasn’t particularly rare, with around 445,500 produced.
The coins were planned to be placed into circulation, but before they could be distributed, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued a proclamation which suspended the gold standard, banning the export of gold and preventing the Treasury and other firms from converting currency to gold coins.
A recall of all U.S. gold coins was initiated. All were to be melted down.
The U.S. Mint believed it had tracked down all of the 1933 Double Eagles with the exception of two, which were sent to the Smithsonian. But in 1937, other examples began to surface.
The Secret Service investigated and found they were stolen from the Mint. The coins were seized, though one somehow fell into the hands of Egypt’s King Farouk, an avid collector. Under no obligation to adhere to U.S. law, Farouk managed to convince an official to provide him with an export license before the authorities could notice.
“By the time that blunder was discovered, the coin had left the United States,” wrote the New York Times in 2002.
After Farouk was forced out of the throne and had to sell many of his possessions, including the coin, the trail ran cold.
It wasn’t until British coin dealer Stephen Fenton turned up with the coin in 1996, having attempted to sell it for $1.5 million in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Manhattan.
Fenton was arrested, and the coin was brought into U.S. custody.
It spent years in “legal limbo,” according to Joshua McMorrow-Hernandez of PCGS. It even spent time in a Secret Service vault located in the World Trade Center in New York.
Months before the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, the coin was moved from the vault to Fort Knox as Fenton won a court battle to split the proceeds from the coin’s auction with the Mint.
Part of the settlement included the U.S. government granting legal ownership to the highest bidder. The sale was conducted by Sotheby’s in 2002, notching a record price for the time: $7.59 million. The buyer was revealed to be Stuart Weitzman, founder of his namesake’s shoe company and a well-regarded designer.
In 2004, 10 more 1933 double eagles were discovered, but not through a criminal investigation. They walked right into the U.S. Mint.
Roy Langbord had discovered the coins in a safe-deposit box and took them to the U.S. Mint for authentication, according to the New York Times. “[T]hey got a rude surprise. The Mint said the coins were genuine and kept them.”
A long legal battle followed, finally culminating in 2016 when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the Langbord family’s appeal to recover the coins, allowing for the application of the Circuit Court’s ruling, which said the Mint was recovering stolen property and the Langbords must surrender all claims of ownership.
Once again, only one coin stood free of legal qualms.
Weitzman decided in the mid 2010s, having made his riches in the shoe business, to dive head first into collecting, buying a block of four “Inverted Jenny” stamps for $2.9 million and the world’s most expensive single stamp, the British Guiana 1856 One-Cent Magenta, for nearly $9.5 million, in 2014.
In 2021, Weitzman told the New York Times that “owning the three items had fulfilled a boyhood dream of collecting that began as a rookie with stamps and coins.” But he began planning for the future as he neared 80 years old, saying “no one takes a U-Haul to the cemetery.”
He consigned the coin in 2021.
It remained the only legal example of the 1933 double eagle in private hands. All others were in government custody (and two at the Smithsonian). The auction brought in $18.9 million, the highest price ever paid for a coin.
Jaime Hernandez of PCGS wrote that, due to the 2016 court decision against the Langbords, it is likely the “end of questions about how many examples will ever be available for private acquisition.
"The United States government can never sell any of the 12 examples it now has in its possession … This only further reaffirms the unique status of the single 1933 Double Eagle available in the collector market, bolstering the coin's appeal and value.”
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct.