This treasure, say you had a handful of these double gold eagles, was a fortune to behold back in the day, and truth be told would be as well today. For gold is precious, and it is kept in limited supply in our country and many others to keep it's value alive. It is one of the pieces of the super structure of our economy and as such, places like Fort Knox, in Kentucky, exist. It is a warehouse, cataloging and security vault for our gold and hence our economy.

Nopw whether your buying for fun or fo profit, these double gold eagle coins are a treasure, some more than a century in the making. The image on them, the historic Liberty Head, which was designed by James B. Longacre, marks a piece of history to any collector. As we stated earlier, these treausres are truly that, and their value can be verified because there was law enacted by the Congress of the United States of American to make sure each double gold eagle coin was minted with .9675 ounces of pure gold each.

Then there is the historical treasure you hold. From the time of the Gold Rush of the late 1800's and later you hold a piece of that history in your hand, remember not behind some other protective device. Another additive to their value, besides their value in gold, or historic valuation, which is dependant on each collector, they are timeless pieces of pure joy when received as a gift. As material gifts go, there is no better gift than the gift of gold. And giving these historic double eagles makes the presentation even more memorable – exciting for the recipient, and flattering to the giver.

So far, we have a place to stay, we have eaten our lunch, and now have plans for a show and we still have only spent, a grand total of $1.90! Well either before or after the show we will want to take our special guest to a nice dinner. So feeling pretty Rockefeller we head over to Delmonico's, where our combined meals would run us maybe another dollar ($1.00), give or take. Then after the show maybe we get a nightcap at the hotel lounge, so from our original double gold eagle coin worth twenty dollars ($20.00) we would now have about fifteen dollars ($15.00)left, with some other change. The next morning we have so much left over that the ridiculous price of the hotel breakfast is not going to stop us from getting it.

See, that is the buying power of gold, circa 1900. Even today though, gold coins are a great investment for our future plans. We obviously wouldn't head out to the local Burger King with a gold eagle in our pocket to buy lunch, but hey I think you get the idea here. Gold is good, then and now.

Double Gold Eagle, American Gold Eagle,

Double Gold Eagles Home

“The troy ounce (ozt) is a unit of imperial measure. In the present day it is most commonly used to gauge the weight and therefore the price of precious metals.

The troy ounce is part of the troy weights system derived from the Roman monetary system. The Romans used bronze bars of varying weights as currency. An aes grave weighed equal to 1 pound. One twelfth of an aes grave was called an uncia, or in English an "ounce". Later standardization would change the ounce to 1/16 of a pound (the avoirdupois ounce), but the 1/12 pound troy ounce was retained for the measure of precious metals. At 480 grains, the troy ounce is heavier than the avoirdupois ounce, which weighs 437.5 grains. A grain is 64.7989 milligrams (mg); hence one troy ounce is 31.1035 grams (g), about 10 percent more than the avoirdupois ounce, which is 28.3495 g.”

Now with that said, when in 1849 the Congress of the United States authorized a twenty dollar coin, it was called the 'double gold eagle' because it was larger and held twice the value of the original. Soon after, and for years to come, gold came in from Nevada, Arizona Colorado and even Alaska, hundreds of millions of ounces actually. These double gold eagle coins were then created and depicted the boom of the “Gold Rush” itselfs and also showed the inherent wealth of the United States in the later half of the 1800's.

Double Gold Eagle, American Gold Eagle,

Double Gold Eagles Home

How is it that someone would spend so much on a gold coin, or specifically a double gold eagle coin?

During the President Roosevelt Administration the United States Mint, you know the place where your other coins – nickels and dimes, comes from, had produced over 400,000 double gold eagles coins. They were never put into circulation because the President made a bill that stated it was illegal for a private citizen to own gold coin currency. This included collectible quality coins thought. To prevent hoarding of these gold coin resources, the mint melted all the gold coins and removed any other s from circulation. This was thought to help stabilize the economy which was in a heavy depression at this time in history.

So this included all of the 1933 Double Gold Eagle coins, they were melted down and made into gold bars. According to the U.S. Mint none, not a single coin was left after this process, except for the two that were donated to the Smithsonian Institute to be placed on display. Then over the years rumors abounded about the existance of an unknown number of these gold coins floating around in collector's circles and other private collections. The government tasked the the Secret Service, the men in black who protect and safeguard the Presidents, to hunt down and locate these coins. After a while they were able to locate a total of 8 double gold eagle coins that escaped the meltdown. It has been atributed to a mint worker to switching out an unknown number of the coins during the metldown process, which allowed these coins to see the light of day.

This proced to not be enough effort it seems, for the obvious reason that one was sold in 2002, almost 50 years after they were all removed from existance. Now another private collector seems to have stashed away another 19 of these gold coins for themselves. Five of these nineteen were then sold to the King of Egypt, but they were purchased by the King before he knew there was any issue with owning them. This grandfathered him in, as they say, so that when the Secret Service tried to recover them from the King they were unable to.

These coins then once more made it onto the open market, so to speak. Collectors knew that the Secret Service was still trying to track them all though, so they then made their way into obscurity again. For over 40 more years these gold coins remained in the shadows and were not known to still be in existance at all.

The next stop on the trail for these coins brings us half way around the world from Egypt to New York. They were held in the World Trade Center itself, and just prior to the events on September 11th, they were moved to Fort Knox holding facility. The gold coins were held in the Trade Towers during the legal proceedings for their final fate and destiny. This court battle waged on for some times, and the final owner was allowed to sell the coins, as long as he slit the proceeds with the U.S. Mint. It is at this sale that the double gold eagle coin was solde for 7.5 million United States Dollars. Quite a bit of pocket change to own a piece of history such as this.

As an ironic end to this tale of the coins, the original owner who sold the coin at auction passed on a few years after the sale. The inheretor of their estate found another ten of the infamous coins. Unfortunately this person, having no idea of what they now possesed, sent the coins to the U.S. Mint for verification and authenticty check. They were once more confiscated by the Secret Service and remain there until further court procedures can determine the placement of the coins.

Double Gold Eagle, American Gold Eagle,

Double Gold Eagles Home

Double Gold Eagle, American Gold Eagle

Double Gold Eagles Home