justinrobinson U.S. Coins

The most expensive coin ever sold at auction

In June 2021 a gold coin with a face value of $20 became the most expensive coin ever sold at auction when it sold for a record $18.9 million in New York. The 1933 gold double eagle is arguably the most notorious coin in the world because, with just this one exception, it is actually illegal to own one. It is therefore, quite literally, a coin that money can’t buy.

The 1933 gold double eagle (Picture courtesy of Sotheby’s)

Added to its appeal is the fact that the design is a beautiful work of art. It was the brainchild of President Theodore Roosevelt, who was determined to put an end to coinage that was, in his words, “artistically of atrocious hideousness”. In January 1905 he invited the acclaimed sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens to a private dinner at the White House where the two men spoke enthusiastically about their love of the high-relief coins of ancient Greece.

President Theodore Roosevelt

The President asked the artist to design the gold double eagle, and Saint-Gaudens depicted a standing Liberty with a torch representing enlightenment in one hand and an olive branch symbolising peace in the other. Behind her is the Capitol building and rays of sunlight symbolising a new dawn. The name ‘LIBERTY’ appears above her head and the year of issue at her side. The reverse shows a side view of a majestic eagle in flight with the rays of the rising sun behind it. Above the eagle is the inscription ‘UNITED STATES OF AMERICA TWENTY DOLLARS’ and below it the motto ‘IN GOD WE TRUST’ which the public demanded to be added after Saint-Gaudens left it off his original high-relief version in 1907. A low-relief version was issued into circulation from 1907 to 1932.

Augustus Saint-Gaudens

It is ironic that the first President Roosevelt helped to create the beautiful double eagle, while the second President Roosevelt made it illegal to own one. In April 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt took radical action to stabilize the economy following the Great Depression by taking America off the gold standard. Gold was withdrawn from circulation and people were ordered to hand in any gold coins and bullion that they owned. The Mint had already struck 445,000 double eagles dated 1933. None went into circulation. Two were sent to the Smithsonian Museum and the rest were believed to have been melted down in 1937.

However, it soon transpired that a small number of 1933 dated double eagle coins had been illegally removed from the Mint. In early 1944 a Philadelphia coin dealer named Israel Switt sold ten to individual collectors. Treasury officials were alerted and tracked down the new owners to reclaim their stolen property. They retrieved nine, which were destroyed and no compensation was offered to Switt’s unlucky customers. However, they were too late to stop one from leaving the country bound for King Farouk of Egypt because it had been granted an export licence in error.

King Farouk of Egypt

Unwilling to cause a diplomatic incident by demanding the return of a coin that had been granted an official export licence, the U.S. Government waited until the Egyptian king was overthrown in 1952 before they attempted to retrieve it. However, by then it had gone missing, and it did not resurface until 1995 when a London coin dealer Stephen Fenton brought it to New York to sell to a private collector. The prospective purchaser turned out to be a government agent, and the coin was seized. A long legal battle followed. In court, Fenton argued that the Government had provided written permission for the coin to be sold when they granted the export licence in 1944.

In 2001 the courts ruled that the coin should be sold at auction with the profits split between Fenton and the Government. This particular specimen was declared legal tender, and the winning bidder had to pay a fee of $20 for its face value along with their winning bid of $6.6 million. Together with the auctioneer’s fee, this added up to a total sale price $7.6 million.

Twenty years later, the coin was sold for $18.9 million by Sotheby’s in New York, making it the most expensive coin ever sold at auction. As a result of the official export licence granted in error, it remains the only 1933 double eagle that can be legally owned by a private individual.

The world’s most expensive coin

There is a further twist to the tale. In 2003, Israel Switt’s grandson Roy Langbord found a safe deposit box that had belonged to his grandfather, which hadn’t been opened for fifty years. Inside he found a large number of gold coins, including another ten 1933 double eagles. When Langbord asked the Mint to authenticate them, they were promptly confiscated, and so he sued the government demanding their return.

Following a lengthy legal battle and appeals process, the court ruled that the coins were the property of the U.S. Government. The Langbord family appealed to the Supreme Court but in April 2017 they declined to reopen the case. Today, the ten double eagles reside in a secure government facility, most likely Fort Knox, while their ultimate fate is determined.

The ten 1933 Double Eagles are now the property of the US Government
justinrobinson Coin History, U.S. Coins

The 1794 Flowing Hair Dollar

The Flowing Hair silver dollar was the very first dollar issued by the United States. The Coinage Act of 2nd April, 1792, created the United States Mint and a bimetallic coinage system based on the silver dollar and the gold eagle. But there would be a delay of two years before the first dollar was struck.

The delay was caused by two reasons. The Government required a $10,000 bond from Chief Coiner Henry Voigt and Assayer Albion Cox before they could be permitted to handle precious metals. Mint Director David Rittenhouse was eventually able to persuade Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson and President George Washington to reduce the bond substantially to enable both men to pay it. There was also a national shortage of silver which meant that the Mint had to wait for private citizens or banks to supply them with raw silver or silver foreign coins so that they could strike them into silver dollars. The silver suppliers would then receive the value of the silver back in a parcel of dollars.

Silver was received from The Bank of Maryland and the Bank of North of America, and it is reported that President Washington contributed some of his silver to coin. Rittenhouse also made a sizeable deposit, and the first US dollars were struck from his silver.

The design of the first official US dollar was entrusted to the Mint’s first official Chief Engraver, Robert Scot (1745-1823). Inspired by a right-facing portrait of Liberty created by Joseph Wright for the 1793 cent, Scot depicted her with her hair flowing behind her surrounded by fifteen stars, representing the number of states in the Union at that time. Her name, ‘LIBERTY’ appears above her head and the year of issue ‘1794’ beneath. For the reverse, Scot created an eagle motif with its wings extended surrounded by a laurel wreath with the inscription ‘UNITED STATES OF AMERICA’.

The 1794 Flowing Hair Dollar (image courtesy of the National Numismatic Collection, National Museum of American History)

Born (appropriately enough) in Scotland, Scot learned his craft in Edinburgh before emigrating to Virginia in 1775 where he quickly acquired a formidable reputation as a coin and medal designer. A move to Philadelphia soon followed, where it is believed that he engraved the dies for the Great Seal of the USA in 1782. In 1793 he became the first salaried Chief Engraver of the United States Mint and designed the Liberty Cap half-cent and the Flowing Hair silver dollars. In 1796 he modified the Great Seal to create the enduringly popular heraldic eagle design, a powerful symbol of the USA which has appeared on the nation’s coinage ever since.

The Great Seal of the United States produced in 1782

The Mint held a special ceremony in Philadelphia on 15th October 1794 to celebrate the striking of the first silver dollar. They quickly realised that their largest coin press was not powerful enough to strike the coins evenly, which made some parts of the design appear weaker than others. Of the 2,000 coins struck, 242 were immediately rejected because the strike quality was particularly poor, either lacking the desired definition or being off centre. These coins were held back by the mint so that they could be recoined the following year.

At the end of the day, Director Rittenhouse was presented with 1,758 silver dollars to circulate as he saw fit. He sent samples to friends and acquaintances all over the country to demonstrate the capabilities of the mint. One landed on the desk of President Washington, forwarded by Secretary of State Edmund Randolph with a note that read;

“The silver coin of the U.S. bears upon its face so much neatness and simplicity, that I cannot restrain myself from transmitting a dollar for your inspection.”

Mint Director Rittenhouse

Rittenhouse arranged for a local Philadelphia firm to construct a special press capable of delivering enough force to strike the large silver dollars. It was ready to begin work in April 1795 when production of the first silver dollar design resumed.

The first United States Mint in Philadephia

It has been estimated that about 125 of the 1794 dated silver dollars are known to exist today. One of the finest specimens, believed to be the coin that Director Rittenhouse kept for himself, and the first silver dollar ever struck at the US Mint was sold at auction for over $10 million in 2013. It became the most expensive coin in the world until another US coin, the 1933 Double Eagle sold at auction for $18.9 million in June 2021.