'Mona Lisa' Of Coins Sells For $7.6M
A gold coin that never had a chance to be spent has proved to be worth a lot more than its $20 face value.
The 1933 Double Eagle coin was sold at the Sotheby's auction house Tuesday for $7.59 million — believed to be the most ever paid for a coin at auction.
The coin, owned by the U.S. Mint before the auction, was sold to an anonymous bidder.
"It is now, as of this evening, the most valuable coin in the world," said the director of the U.S. Mint, Henrietta Holsman Fore.
The Mint had estimated the coin's value at $4 million to $6 million.
"This is the Mona Lisa of coins," Beth Deisher, editor of Coin World, told the New York Times.
Double Eagles were first minted in 1850. The ones that were minted in 1933 were not circulated because President Roosevelt decided to take the nation off the gold standard.
The coin auctioned Tuesday night is believed to be one of very few 1933 Double Eagles to have survived an order that year that the coins be melted down. The front features a standing Liberty figure, while a majestic eagle graces the reverse.
Before the coins were melted down, two were handed over to the Smithsonian Institution for historical safekeeping. A third coin — the one sold Tuesday night — was thought to have been illegally smuggled out of the Mint and ended up in the storied coin collection of Egypt's last monarch, King Farouk. The coin disappeared in the 1950s and surfaced again in 1996.
The Double Eagle appeared when British coin dealer Stephen Fenton tried selling it to undercover Secret Service agents in New York. An out-of-court settlement with Fenton last year cleared the way for the auction, the Mint says.
Fore said money from the sale of the rare coin will go into the U.S. Treasury. "It will be used to pay down the public debt and fund the war on terrorism," she said.
The sale price includes $6.6 million for the U.S. government, a 15 percent commission for Sotheby's and the coin's $20 face value.
"It's an enigma," said Stephen Tebo, a real estate developer and coin collector from Boulder, Colo., who dropped out of the bidding when it topped $4 million.
"I've spent 40 years collecting, and I've never seen one on the market before," he said.
Double Eagle coins were designed from 1908 to 1933 by American sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, whose historic figures adorn Washington. It features a liberty figure reminiscent of a Greek goddess. The other side features a majestic eagle.
Ron Gillio, a dealer in Santa Barbara, Calif., said earlier this year that the coin's design makes it stand out. "It's the most beautiful coin ever designed by the U.S. government."