Many people dream of finding treasure, and because of the prevalence of coins, many times the fantasy is to look in your pocket and suddenly find a mint condition antique coin that has somehow escaped notice to everyone but you. As fun as the dream sounds, the vast majority of rare coins are accounted for, especially the most rare and valuable ones.

A great example of treasure in the form of a coin comes from a $20 coin that is worth almost $19 million dollars today. This rare coin, with only three known remaining in existence nowadays, is known as the 1933 $20 Double Eagle.

Minted in 1933 during the Great Depression, this piece was never entered into circulation before President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 6102 banned private ownership of gold, sparing only that which was deemed of collector value. This was transitioned into the Gold Reserve Act in 1934, reinforcing and expanding gold ownership and usage restrictions, forcing residents of the country to turn in their gold coins and exchange them for other currency of the same legal value, so by the end of the year the double eagles were no longer in circulation and many other coins were destroyed, remelted to aid in the country’s economy.

Since this coin was entirely made of gold, unlike many others that were made of nickel and other less ostentatious metals, some of pieces that survived the government’s executive order were melted down by their owners to keep the valuable gold, making even more of them disappear and contribute to their scarcity.

Its peculiar design also helps build its lore. Designed by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, renowned for his significant contributions to American sculpture and numismatics, it features a standing Liberty holding a torch in her left hand, an olive branch in her right, and 46 stars around her and the Capitol building in the lower left corner along with the legends “LIBERTY” and “1933” on one side. The other side, no less impressive, shows an eagle flying over the rays of the sun below the legends “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA” and “TWENTY DOLLARS” and “IN GOD WE TRUST” at the top.

He had been tasked with redesigning US currency to better reflect the change in the country’s history and this was one of hist last designs, as it was created in 1907, just before his death. He never got to see the design being produced or the end result.

The Double Eagle coin today

It is unclear how many of these coins survived the original destruction, but it is estimated that about 20 survived. Two of them were intentionally kept by the federal government, housed in the US National Numismatic Collection, housed inside of the Smithsonian museum, for their historical importance, and it is believed that another 10 are kept securely stored in Fort Knox’s United States Bullion Depository for preservation.

The fate of the others is unknown, except for one, which made its way to a private collector and was auctioned off in 2002 for a staggering $7.59 million. It is believed that this same coin was auctioned again in 2021 for the even more incredible price of $18.9 million dollars, according to reports by the Smithsonian magazine, becoming the most valuable gold rare coin ever auctioned.

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As for the rest of the coins, many historians believe they have been slowly lost and destroyed throughout history, getting melted down for their gold value or just lost to time. If another of these coins

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resurfaced, its value could be just as high as the one auctioned last, but the probability of this happening seems to be quite low.