A 1933 Double Eagle sold for a record-shattering $18.9m at a Sotheby’s auction in New York on Tuesday, and the world’s rarest stamp raked in a whopping $8.3m.
Sotheby’s says the 1933 Double Eagle has a richly captivating history that encapsulates large swathes of United States history and has been at the centre of intrigue for more than 80 years.
The coins were struck but never issued for use. All 1933 Double Eagles were ordered destroyed after President Franklin Roosevelt, in an effort to lift America’s battered economy from the depths of the Great Depression, took the nation off the gold standard..
The privately-owned 1933 Double Eagle coin was sold by American shoe designer and collector Stuart Weitzman.