1933 St. Gaudens $20 1907-1933 MS65

History

Philadelphia struck the 1933 double eagle in the spring of that year under ordinary coinage authority, just as the banking crisis reached its peak. Executive Order 6102 of April 5, 1933 required private persons to surrender gold coin and bullion, and the Gold Reserve Act followed in January 1934, so the Mint cashier never released the coins and they were never monetized. Nearly the entire mintage was held at the Mint and later melted into bars, with two examples transferred to the Smithsonian for the national collection. A small number left the Mint irregularly through a cashier who substituted 1933 pieces for earlier-date double eagles, with Philadelphia jeweler Israel Switt as the conduit, and the Secret Service recovered most of those in the 1940s and 1950s.

Details

Augustus Saint-Gaudens designed both sides, though he died in 1907 before regular production began. The coins were struck in .900 gold with .100 copper at a weight of 33.436 grams, with a lettered edge and no mint mark. The reported mintage is 445,500, essentially all of which was destroyed. No proof examples are recognized, and the pieces are the standard low-relief arabic-numeral type with motto used from 1908 onward rather than the 1907 high relief or Roman numeral varieties.

Features

The obverse shows Liberty striding forward at full length with a torch in her right hand and an olive branch in her left, a sunburst behind her and the Capitol dome at lower left, LIBERTY above and the date at lower right within a border of stars for the states. The reverse carries an eagle in flight to the left above a rising sun with rays, with UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and TWENTY DOLLARS, and IN GOD WE TRUST above the sun. E PLURIBUS UNUM appears in raised letters on the edge with stars between the words. The date is among the most heavily faked in the series, and the usual method is alteration of a common 1920s Philadelphia Saint-Gaudens so the final digits read 1933; cast and struck transfer-die copies also circulate.

Notable facts

• A single specimen received a United States export license in 1944, issued in error, and passed to King Farouk of Egypt, making it the only 1933 double eagle that can be privately owned.
• That coin sold at auction in New York in July 2002 for a reported $7,590,020, a figure that included an additional $20 paid to the Treasury to monetize the piece.
• Consigned by shoe designer Stuart Weitzman, the same coin sold at Sotheby's in June 2021 for a reported $18,872,250, setting the record for the most expensive coin sold at auction.
• The heirs of Israel Switt surrendered ten further examples to the Mint in 2003 and 2004, and the government retained them after Langbord v. United States Department of the Treasury was decided in its favor.
• Surviving examples are commonly counted as thirteen: two at the Smithsonian, ten held by the government, and the one in private hands.