Double Gold Eagles Coins
Not so breaking news – In 2002 a single Double Eagle Gold Coin was sold at auction for 7.5 Million Dollars. Imagine if yo uhad that one laying around in your pocket or even in your collection and didn't realize it.
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,
