Sotheby’s Auctions: Rare US Double Eagle Gold Coin, Stamps break Records

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A 1933 Double Eagle, America’s last gold coin struck for circulation, 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.

The coin, the only 1933 Double Eagle ever allowed to be privately owned, was expected to pull in somewhere along the lines of $10m to $15m at the auction but sold for far beyond that.

With a face value of $20, the Double Eagle was the last gold coin produced for intended circulation in America.

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But it was never issued as President Franklin D Roosevelt withdrew the US from the gold standard, in an effort to lift the country from depression.

Most of the coins were then destroyed and declared illegal to own – with the exception of the one sold on Tuesday.

It had belonged for a time to King Farouk of Egypt, and was later seized in a secret service sting operation in New York City.

On Tuesday, the privately owned 1933 Double Eagle coin was sold by American shoe designer and collector Stuart Weitzman to a bidder whose identity has not been revealed.

The Double Eagle has an image of Liberty on one side and an American eagle on the other.

The coin also smashed records the only time it previously came to the market, 19 years ago.

Sotheby’s said that on Tuesday, Weitzman also auctioned off a British Guiana One-Cent Magenta stamp, issued in 1856, for $8.3m. That price solidifies the stamp’s position as the most valuable in the world.

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The world leading arts broker is quoted as saying “No stamp is rarer than the sole-surviving example of the British Guiana One-Cent Magenta, a unique yet unassuming penny issue from 1856, which has been heralded as the pinnacle of stamp collecting for more than a century,”.

Weitzman bought the precious stamp in 2014 for $9.5m.

In line with the tradition of its past owners, Weitzman made his mark: a line drawing of a stiletto shoe and his initials.

Sotheby’s says the buyers of both the 1933 Double Eagle and the British Guiana One-Cent Magenta stamp wished to remain anonymous.

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In addition, a plate block of the 24-cent “Inverted Jenny” stamps, issued in 1918 for the first US airmail letters, sold for $4.9m, making them the most valuable US stamps.

The Inverted Jenny, which was last sold at auction some 26 years ago for $2.9m, has a unique printing error in which its biplane design appears to be upside down.

The auction house described it as “the most well-known and sought-after American stamp rarity”.

Sotheby’s revealed that the stamp block was bought by David Rubenstein, a co-founder of private equity company The Carlyle Group.