The Most Expensive Gold Coin Ever Sold at an Auction
The last gold coin ever struck for circulation in the United States - called the "Double Eagle"- was recently sold at a Sotheby's auction.
The extremely rare gold coin from1933, put up for sale by designer Stuart Weitzman, was sold for a record price of 18.9 million dollars at the auction that took place in New York.
"This is the only 1933 Double Eagle monetized and issued by the United States Mint. It is also the only example that the United States Government has ever authorized, or ever intends to authorize, for private ownership. . . . Any additional examples that may exist are, similarly, property of the United States Government, illegal to own, and subject to seizure", stated the United States Mint.
According to CNN, the "Double Eagle" became officially the most valuable gold coin ever sold at auction, its selling price is almost double the previous record.
Featuring Liberty on one side, and an eagle in flight on the other, the gold coin has a face value of 20 dollars.
This particular edition of the "Double Eagle" was never put into circulation, and almost all of the coins were returned to the US government and melted down. Only a handful of them survived and entered the market.
But in 1944 the US Secret Service declared that any such coin found in the hands of collectors would be considered stolen.
The copy sold at the Sotheby's auction is the only one that can be legally owned by a private person as a result of a legal battle between the former owner and the US Treasury.
The auction marked the second instance in which the currency set a selling price record after selling for $ 7.6 million in 2002.
The auction marks the second time it has broken the auction record for a coin, having last done so in 2002, when it received 7.6 million dollars.
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