Worlds most Expensive Gold Coin
The gold price today means nothing when it comes to the worlds most expensive gold coin which is on its European tour at the moment and when it came to Dublin,I went to see it.
The exhibition was held at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham Dublin, which hosted a collection of over 30 coins they came from the the Natural Numismatic Collection,
Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, Washington D.C.
The European Tour began in London and will end in Helsinki at the end of this month.
The gold coin is called 1933 Double eagle and is the most expensive gold coin ever sold at auction. In July 2002 one single 1933 double eagle gold coin was sold for 7.6 million dollars, this same coin is also the only 1933 double eagle ever to be in private ownership.
The rest of the 13 known 1933 double eagles are the property of the United States Government and are classified as national treasures.
Rumor has it that the this 1933 double eagle could be valued up to 20 million dollars, this of course is just speculation amongst coin collectors.
This 20 dollar 1933 was the last double eagle to be minted, ending a tradition that commenced in 1849. The fact the coin was in Dublin was quite special given the sculptor was born in Dublin,
Yes the the most expensive gold coin in the world was designed by an Irish man, and his name was Augustus Saint Gaudens, he was born on the first of march in 1848 in Dublin, His father was French and his mother was from Donegal.
When he was six months old his family moved to New York, Augustus became know for a series of monument designs and he gained the reputation as Americas foremost sculptor and the beginning of the twentieth century he was chosen by President Theodore Roosevelt to redesign the US coinage, he designed the eagle and the double eagle gold coins.
The double eagles dropped out of circulation in 1933 when Franklin Roosevelt signed an executive order forbidding the hoarding of gold coin, gold Bullion and gold certificates within the continental United States, all 455,000 double eagles were sent to the mint for destruction except for two coins which were given to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.
All though a corrupt officer who worked at the US mint sold 20 coins, half of these coins were resold in the 1930’s while a further 10 did not resurface until 2004 , so as of 2002 there is only one 1933 gold double eagle held in private ownership.
