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"There Can Be Only One" - The 1933 St. Gaudens Double Eagle

"There Can Be Only One" - The 1933 St. Gaudens Double Eagle

Posted by Carl Hahn on 5th Jun 2021

The early 1930's in the United States were marked by depression and uncertainty.  A crisis was brewing in the U.S. banking community, with fear of widespread bank failures.  To stem the crisis, Congress passed the Emergency Banking Act in early March of 1933, calling for an immediate bank holiday and calling for the surrender of gold coin and certificates in exchange for other coin or currency.  The U.S. Mint had coined 445,500 gold Double Eagles already in 1933.  However, on April 5, 1933 President Franklin Delano Roosevelt issued an executive order making the hoarding of gold coinage or bullion illegal.  The entire lot of 1933 Double Eagles was slated for melting.  None of the 1933 St. Gaudens Double Eagles ever made it to circulation and only a handful of the coins escaped the government gold recall to make their way to private hands...as stolen property.  

The U.S. Government, upon learning of the less than two dozen 1933 Double Eagles in private hands, issued a notice that all examples were U.S. government property and subject to seizure.  Most were returned, although one example slipped out of the country and into the collection of King Farouk of Egypt - a notable collector.  After King Farouk fell from power, the coin disappeared for several decades, eventually returning to the market - and to the attention of the U.S. Secret Service who seized the coin, arresting Stephen Fenton, a London coin dealer who was attempting to sell the coin.  As a result of a lengthy legal dispute, a settlement was reached in which the coin was monetized by the U.S. Government and the proceeds of sale - $7,590,020 - were split with Fenton.  It remains the only example that is legally available to own.  

The extreme rarity, storied history, and the cache of exclusivity that surround the coin have driven the sale price to astronomical heights.  Since the initial 2002 sale, the owner of the coin was unknown until Sotheby's announced the pending auction of the fabled 1933 St. Gaudens double eagle. It was released that the current owner was designer Stuart Weitzman.  Likely a shrewd alternative investment, the 1933 double eagle is one of three lots in the June 8, 2021 Sotheby's auction "Three Treasures - Collected by Stuart Weitzman" - the others being the fabled Inverted Jenny plate block error stamps and the British Guiana One-Cent Black on Magenta stamp.  The expected sale price for the 1933 Double Eagle is $10,000,000 to $15,000,000, which will likely make it the most valuable coin ever.  The Sotheby's auction catalogue offers an excellent history of the 1933 St. Gaudens Double Eagle Lot 1 - The 1933 Double Eagle.