Illegal, confiscated, secret agents, sting operation, King of Egypt, U.S. government, Smithsonian, rarity, a story that began in the 1930s and has yet to see an ending. As we wade through the 100 Greatest United States Coin series written by Jeff Garrett, this fourth edition by Whitman Publishing has us looking at a top five coin that encompasses all the previously mentioned details laid out before you. Let's get into it.
#4 – 1933 Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle
Executive Order 6102 was issued in 1933 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt informed all United States citizens to surrender their gold. Banks were also instructed to no longer pay out gold coins and gold certificates. From the middle of March to the middle of May in 1933, the U.S. Mint struck 445,000 double eagles. Of those, two were sent to the Smithsonian in 1934, and the rest were believed to be melted down in 1937. However, it would quickly be found that that was not the case.
Today, there are officially 13 coins known to exist of the 1933 double eagle. They were said to have been put aside for assay purposes and were taken from the Mint. The government still claims that these coins are illegal to own. Some ended up in private collector's hands, causing them to end up on the market. B. Max Mehl sold one to King Farouk of Egypt in 1944. Another was set to be sold at auction by Stack’s in that same year, but the U.S. government shut to down and confiscated that specimen. Several other examples were also confiscated and presumed to have been melted down. One collector fought the seizure of his coin, but he lost in court.
King Farouk’s 1933 double eagle “disappeared” for 50 years after the U.S. government requested it not be included in the 1954 collection that was sold after the monarch was overthrown. It would show back up in 1996 when a coin named the Farouk specimen was secretly sold by a dealer from London in a New York City hotel room for around $1 million. The buyers ended up being agents of the U.S. government, and the coin was confiscated. The sellers were arrested, but a legal battle ensued quickly after. The criminal charges dropped and the ownership was fought over for years until just days before jury selection, the U.S. government and the sellers settled by selling the coin and splitting the profit. A unique stipulation was also put into place: the Farouk example was the only 1933 double eagle legal to own. It was officially monetized and issued by the U.S. government and would be purchased by a private buyer for $7.5 million.
In 2005, the U.S. government was notified that the estate of Israel Switt (the individual identified as the person involved in the coins leaving the Mint in the 1930s) retained 10 examples of the gold coin. They were sent to the U.S. Mint for authentication and were swiftly confiscated. They are said to be held in the vaults of the Mint (presumedly Fort Knox).
