1933 Double Eagle

Specifications

Denomination: 20 dollars
Series: Saint-Gaudens double eagle
Designer: Augustus Saint-Gaudens
Years of issue: 1933
Composition: 90% Gold, 10% Copper
Weight: 33.431 g
Diameter: 34.1 mm
Mintage: 445500
Key mintages: 445,500 struck at Philadelphia; never regularly issued (U.S. Mint, 2026)

Melt value: $4,203.17gold $4,345.00/ozt, copper $0.44/ozt · prices as of Sep 16, 2026

United States coin image from the United States Mint (via Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

445,500 struck and never issued — one coin is legal to own privately, and it sold for $18.9 million in 2021.

History

In 1933 the Philadelphia Mint struck 445,500 double eagles that were never regularly issued, making the 1933 the most famous unissued coin in American numismatics (U.S. Mint, 2026).
Almost none escaped: two examples left the Mint lawfully for the Smithsonian Institution, nine were recovered during a federal investigation between 1944 and 1954 and melted, and one recovered in 1996 was monetized under a legal settlement — becoming the sole 1933 double eagle authorized for private ownership (U.S. Mint, 2026).
The U.S. Mint today holds 11 examples of the 1933 double eagle, and in July 2026 it displayed them together for the first time — alongside the Smithsonian’s two and the privately ownable specimen, this accounting supersedes older sources that cited a total of 13 (U.S. Mint, 2026).
The privately ownable specimen is the most valuable coin ever sold: it brought $18.9 million at auction in 2021, setting the world record for a coin (Smithsonian Magazine). The Mint first offered a 1933 double eagle for public sale in 2002, describing it as the most valuable gold coin in the world (U.S. Mint, 2002).
The coin is Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ celebrated $20 gold design, struck in .900 gold and .100 copper at 33.431 g and 34.1 mm with a lettered edge reading “E PLURIBUS UNUM” (Wikipedia).

1933 (Philadelphia, 445,500 struck) — never regularly issued; the sole collectible issue of the date (U.S. Mint).
The 1996-recovered specimen — monetized by legal settlement, the only example authorized for private ownership; sold for $18.9 million in 2021 (U.S. Mint; Smithsonian Magazine).

Authentication markers (quoted U.S. Mint examination, via Invaluable): slight doubling on the vertical bar of the ‘E’ in LIBERTY, and a reverse die scratch that crosses the tip of the eagle’s beak.
Legal status: only one 1933 double eagle is authorized for private ownership. The U.S. Mint holds 11 examples and the Smithsonian holds 2 (U.S. Mint, 2026).