1933 Double Eagle, the Farouk–Weitzman Specimen

The Philadelphia Mint struck 445,500 double eagles in 1933, but after the United States left the gold standard none were issued and nearly all were melted. A handful left the Mint; on 23 February 1944 King Farouk of Egypt acquired one under an export licence, before the Treasury realised the coins had never been released, and the Secret Service began recovering the others. After Farouk was deposed in 1952 his collection was catalogued for sale, and the coin disappeared. In 1996 the British dealer Stephen Fenton was arrested with a 1933 double eagle in a Secret Service sting at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York; he said it came from Farouk's collection. The civil case settled in 2001: the coin became government property, was 'issued and monetised' by the Treasury, and was sold at auction by Sotheby's and Stack's on 30 July 2002 for $7,590,020, including $20 to monetise its face value, with the proceeds split between the Treasury and Fenton. The buyer was revealed in 2021 as Stuart Weitzman, who consigned it to Sotheby's, where it sold on 8 June 2021 for $18,872,250 to a buyer not publicly named.

Culture

American

Medium

Gold

Dimensions

34 mm

Origin

Philadelphia, United States