The World's Most Valuable Coin - The St Gaudens 1933 $20 Gold Double Eagle
If you are like me, you might be interested in world records. You also might be interested in valuable coins, especially gold coins. When you put those two interests together in someone they may want to know what the world's most valuable coin is. If you are a coin collector, you probably think it is the recently minted Canadian Maple Leaf $1 million 220 lb. gold coin. Even though the price of gold has increased the value of this coin to nearly $3 million that isn't even half the price of the most valuable coin in the world.
In 1933 President Franklin D Roosevelt declared that Americans could no longer own gold bullion, thus ending the minting of gold coins and the end to the most beautiful coin ever minted, the St Gaudens $20 Gold Double Eagle. All of the 11,000 or so of these coins that had already been manufactured were to have been melted down and destroyed. However, workers at the US Mint realized how valuable these coins would eventually be, so several were stolen.
Most of these coins were recovered, but it is believed that 20 to 30 were never accounted for. Israel Switt, a jeweler in Philadelphia, came into possession of 9 of these coins and eventually sold one to King Farouk of Egypt and this coin was exported from the United States before authorities realized it was missing from the mint. The coin appeared on the market once again in 1952, but it was apparent that the Secret Service wanted it and it disappeared for another 40 years.
The Secret Service finally seized it in 1992 when Steven Fenton showed up in New York with it. Fenton filed a lawsuit and was eventually awarded the coin and it went on the auction block in July of 2002. The coin was featured on eBay Live Auctions and fetched a record $7.6 million. It is interesting to note that this coin was almost lost to the terrorist attacks of 9-11. Two months prior the lawsuit by Fenton was finalized and the world's most valuable coin was moved to Fort Knox.
The auction for the only legally existing copy of the 1933 St Gaudens $20 gold coin isn't the end of the story for this valuable treasure. In 2004 one of Israel Switt's daughters, Joan Langboard, found 10 of the 1933 specimens in a safe in her father's jewelry store after he died. In trying to have the coins authenticated the Secret Service confiscated them. Mrs Langboard has file a lawsuit to get the coins back that is still pending.
The 1933 St Gaudens Double Eagle was never issued as legal tender so she might have a hard time ever seeing the coins again. It remains to be seen what would happen to the value of the coin sold in 2002 if 10 more of these treasures went to market. But right now and because of the mystery and intrigue that surrounds this truly unique find, the St Gaudens Double Eagle reigns supreme as the world's most valuable coin.