WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States Mint will publicly display all 11 of its recovered 1933 Double Eagle gold coins together for the first time on Aug. 28 at the American Numismatic Association World’s Fair of Money in Pittsburgh, bringing together one of the nation’s rarest and most legally significant coin collections.
The exhibition marks the first time all 11 specimens held by the Mint have been displayed as a single collection. The agency announced the exhibit as the United States prepares to commemorate its 250th anniversary.
The 1933 Double Eagle occupies a unique place in U.S. numismatic history. Although 445,500 coins were struck at the Philadelphia Mint in 1933, none were officially released into circulation after President Franklin D. Roosevelt halted gold coin payments during the Great Depression. The coins were subsequently ordered melted.
The only specimens that lawfully left the Mint at the time were two coins transferred to the Smithsonian Institution for the National Numismatic Collection.
A Secret Service investigation launched in 1944 led to the recovery of multiple stolen 1933 Double Eagles over the following decade. Those recovered coins were destroyed. Another specimen recovered in 1996 became the only privately owned 1933 Double Eagle after a legal settlement allowed the United States Mint to monetize the coin. It sold at auction in 2002 and again in 2021, when it set a record as the world’s most valuable coin.
Ten additional specimens surfaced in 2004 in the possession of the family of a Philadelphia jeweler alleged to have facilitated the coins’ removal from the Mint during the 1930s. After a two-week trial in 2011, a federal jury found in favor of the government, and a judge later ruled the coins had not been lawfully removed from the Mint and remain property of the United States.
The 11th coin in the Mint’s collection was surrendered voluntarily by a private owner after the 2011 trial. According to the Mint, the individual acquired the coin on the open market and was unaware private ownership was unlawful. The agency stated the coin traces its provenance to the same Philadelphia jeweler linked to the other recovered specimens.
The complete collection will be displayed Aug. 28 during the American Numismatic Association World’s Fair of Money in Pittsburgh.
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