The following coin catalog description is of LOT #4861 from the 2018 Heritage FUN US Coin Signature Auction in Tampa. As a Branch Mint Proof, this 1838-O is a Classic US Rarity of the highest importance.
United States 1933 Double Eagle $20 Gold Coin
The
1933 double eagle $20 gold coin is one of American Numismatics’ most notorious coins. Only one surviving specimen was ever monetized and made legal to own, yet an uncertain number of examples still exist.
When the
United States made the controversial decision in 1933 to suspend the gold standard that it had based its monetary policy on since the turn of the 20th century, most double eagles dated that year were summarily melted down. It was an ignoble end for the most spectacular of all American coin designs.
That American sculptor
Augustus Saint-Gaudens would have a hand in creating that design and remaking American coinage was no easy accomplishment. The world-renowned sculptor, venerated in his time and even more so sense, had a serious distaste for the Mint’s bureaucracy and an even lesser opinion of its chief engraver. He turned down more commissions than he could possibly accept. Commissions with even better terms. A