Part 3: The Forbidden Gold – The Mystery of the 1933 Double Eagles
BREAKING NEWS for all you history buffs and gold hounds! We are diving back into our Historical Mysteries series, and today we’re talking about the big one. The "Mona Lisa" of coins. The one coin that can literally get you arrested just for owning it!
We’re talking about the 1933 Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle.
If you’ve been following The Coin Show, you know we love a good story. But this isn't just a story: it’s a high-stakes heist, a diplomatic nightmare, and a multi-million dollar legal battle all rolled into one ounce of gold! Buckle up, because this is the mystery of the Forbidden Gold!
The Most Beautiful Coin Ever Made?
Before we get into the crimes, we have to talk about the art. In the early 1900s, President Theodore Roosevelt (the "Rough Rider" himself) decided American pocket change looked like "artistically hideous" junk. He called up the legendary sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens and told him to make something epic.
Saint-Gaudens delivered. He created a design featuring a majestic Lady Liberty striding forward with a torch and an olive branch, backed by a soaring eagle. It’s widely considered the most beautiful design in the history of the U.S. Mint. By 1933, the Philadelphia Mint was cranking these out by the hundreds of thousands.
Everything was going great: until the world fell apart!
(Historical Archive Photo: Smithsonian Institution — 1933 Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle, National Numismatic Collection.)
The Day Gold Became Illegal
Imagine waking up and finding out that holding onto your own savings was a federal crime. That’s exactly what happened in 1933! The Great Depression was crushing the country. Banks were folding left and right. People were hoarding gold because they didn't trust the paper "greenbacks" anymore.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt had to act fast. On April 5, 1933, he issued Executive Order 6102. This order required all Americans to hand over their gold to the government. If you kept more than a few small collectible coins, you were looking at a $10,000 fine or ten years in prison!
Now, here’s the kicker: The Philadelphia Mint had already struck 445,500 of the 1933 Double Eagles. But because of the new law, they were never officially "issued." They were just sitting there in the vault, forbidden fruit waiting for the furnace.
The Great Mint Swap: An Inside Job?
The order came down to melt them all. Every single one. The government turned nearly half a million of these masterpieces into boring gold bars. Official records show that two were sent to the Smithsonian for the National Numismatic Collection. And that should have been the end of it.
But it wasn't!
By the late 1930s, 1933 Double Eagles started appearing in the hands of private collectors. How? The U.S. Secret Service started sniffing around and they landed on a guy named George McCann.
McCann was a cashier at the Philadelphia Mint. He had access. The theory is that McCann swapped out 1933 coins for earlier dates of the same weight before the big melt-down happened. He allegedly worked with a local jeweler named Israel Switt to funnel these "stolen" coins into the market.
Check your collections, folks! You never know what's hiding in an old estate box. But be careful: the Secret Service spent the next decade hunting these coins down and seizing them without paying a dime!
(Historical Photo: Philadelphia Mint (archival photo reproduced in PCGS feature “A Look at the Philadelphia Mint.”)
The King Farouk Connection
This is where the story gets really wild. One of those "liberated" 1933 Double Eagles found its way to King Farouk of Egypt. Farouk was a world-class collector (and a bit of a playboy). He bought the coin from a dealer in 1944.
The Egyptian government actually applied for an export license from the U.S. Treasury. And get this: due to a massive bureaucratic blunder, the Treasury approved it! By the time they realized they’d just authorized the export of "stolen" government property, the coin was already in Cairo.
The U.S. tried to get it back, but then World War II and various Egyptian revolutions got in the way. The coin vanished into the shadows for decades.
The $18.9 Million Payday
Fast forward to 1996. A British coin dealer named Stephen Fenton was arrested during a sting operation at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York. He was trying to sell: you guessed it: the Farouk specimen!
After years of legal heavyweight rounds, the government did something they had never done before. Because they had mistakenly issued that export license back in the '40s, they agreed to settle. They would "monetize" this one specific coin, making it the only 1933 Double Eagle that is 100% legal for a private citizen to own.
In 2002, it sold at auction for $7.59 million. In 2021, it sold again at Sotheby’s for a staggering $18,872,250!
Look at that price tag! That is the power of a great story and extreme rarity. Support The Coin Show by sharing this post: we want everyone to know just how crazy the numismatic world can be!
(Verified Historical Photo: Sotheby’s — Farouk–Weitzman 1933 Double Eagle (2021).)
The Langbord Discovery: 10 More?!
You’d think the story ends with an $18 million sale, right? Wrong! In 2003, the family of that Philadelphia jeweler, Israel Switt (the guy who allegedly worked with the Mint cashier), opened an old safety deposit box. Inside, they found ten more 1933 Double Eagles.
The Langbord family (Switt’s descendants) sent the coins to the Mint for authentication. The Mint said, "Yep, they’re real… and they’re ours!" The Secret Service seized them immediately.
What followed was a decade-long legal war. The Langbords argued the coins were obtained legally; the government argued they were stolen property. In the end, the government won. Those ten coins are now sitting under lock and key at Fort Knox.
Why We Love the Mystery
The 1933 Double Eagle isn't just gold. It’s a symbol of a turning point in American history. It represents the end of the Gold Standard and the beginning of a new era of currency.
Every time one of these surfaces, it’s a headline-grabbing event. It reminds us that there are still treasures out there waiting to be found, and mysteries that even the FBI and Secret Service can’t fully solve!
Want more heist stories?
Check out our previous posts on the Yale Heist and the Binion Hoard!
Look for our upcoming Part 4 where we tackle a mystery involving lost silver shipwrecks!
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The hunt for history never ends. Keep your eyes on the glass and your loupe ready: you might just find the next "forbidden" treasure!
What Do You Think?
Did George McCann really swap the coins, or is there another way they escaped? Do you think the government was right to seize the Langbord coins? Drop a comment below and let’s get the conversation started!
Until next time, keep collecting!
: Penny (The Coin Show AI Writer)
