While the U.S. Mint decides which of three auction houses will be granted the contract to sell later this year the former King Farouk specimen of 1933 Saint-Gaudens $20 gold double eagle, the coin itself is residing securely within the confines of the Fort Knox Gold Bullion Depository in Kentucky.
Coin World has learned that the double eagle was secretly moved first to Mint headquarters in Washington, D.C., accompanied by Secret Service agents, then transferred under tight security to the Fort Knox facility. The coin had been housed in a temporary plastic encapsulation in a vault in Secret Service offices in Manhattan since the coin was seized by undercover agents on Feb. 8, 1996.
The move was accomplished within days of a landmark decision in January permitting private ownership of the coin once owned by the Egyptian monarch. An out-of-court settlement reached Jan. 25 permits only this specimen of 1933 double eagle to be privately owned, with any other extant specimens still subject to confiscation.
That decision was based primarily on the Treasury Department's 1944 issuance of an export license permitting Farouk to remove the coin from American soil.
A jury trial had been set to start Jan. 29 to settle the 1933 coin's fate.
The proceeds from the sale of the coin will be evenly divided between the U.S. Mint's Enterprise Fund and Stephen Fenton, the British dealer who imported the coin after securing it from an intermediary who could trace the coin's travels to individuals with ties to the Egyptian military and Farouk. Fenton is owner of Knightsbridge Coins in London and chairman of the British Numismatic Trade Association,
Mint Director Jay W. Johnson said June 28 the double eagle was moved to Fort Knox on Feb. 1 for safekeeping, two days after Secret Service agents in New York brought the coin to Washington.
"It's a very valuable coin and we couldn't think of a safer place for it to be," Johnson said. "It was a Mint decision to put it there. We told Mr. Fenton and he's happy that it's safe and sound." Fenton's legal counsel, Barry H. Berke - a partner in the New York law firm of Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP - said they were informed of the Mint's plans to move the coin beforehand and concurred with the decision.
While the government retains ownership of the 1933 double eagle, Fenton and the Mint share equal rights in its sale.
On April 12, the Mint solicited proposals from 13 different auction houses, with six of those requested submitting proposals by the April 25 deadline, according to Johnson. The field of prospective bidders has been narrowed to three based on oral presentations made April 30, with an announcement of the winning bidder to be made shortly, Johnson said.
The request for proposals, or RFP, asked prospective bidders how they would conduct an auction of such a coin, and required a marketing plan to publicize the sale and maximize public participation.
Johnson said it is expected the sale will attract people who, although they may not be immersed in numismatics, will be interested in the 1933 double eagle and the history behind it. Johnson said it is presumed the coin will be sold as the only coin in the auction rather than as the centerpiece of a multiple-lot auction.
Outside those who have specifically handled the coin, the public has not received the slightest glimpse of the coin, even through photographs. The coin was struck from the same pair of dies that struck the two 1933 double eagles housed in the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian Institution.
Photographs will most likely be taken of the Farouk-Fenton 1933 double eagle by the auction firm awarded the auction contract for use in an auction catalog, with the coin moved under tight security from Fort Knox to the location where the photography would take place, Johnson said. The photography will not be performed at Fort Knox, Johnson said.
Once the Farouk-Fenton 1933 double eagle is sold, ownership of the coin will be transferred to the new owner or owners, Johnson said.
This is the first time the federal government has authorized private ownership of a 1933 double eagle since the Farouk coin was exported. Nine other specimens seized in the 1940s and 1950s by the Secret Service were destroyed.
Fenton obtained the 1933 double eagle and more than 100 other coins from Farouk's collection in several private transactions in 1995.
The drama involving the Fenton-Farouk specimen of the 1933 double eagle began to unfold on Feb. 8, 1996, when Fenton and U.S. coin dealer Jay Parrino were arrested at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York after trying to sell the coin to a Secret Service informant for $1.5 million. The coin was subsequently seized.
Criminal charges were filed, but eventually dropped, and Parrino withdrew any ownership claims to the coin.
Government attorneys changed directions with their case, starting a civil forfeiture and declaratory judgment action seeking forfeiture of the Fenton-Farouk specimens on grounds the coin was never officially issued and therefore any pieces extant must have been stolen. All of the government's claims have subsequently been withdrawn.
The month after the coin's seizure, Smithsonian curators and Mint technicians examined the Fenton-Farouk specimen and concluded the coin was struck from the same dies that were used to strike the two 1933 double eagles that are part of the coin cabinet that comprises the National Numismatic Collection.
Fenton acquired the 1933 double eagle from among a series of transactions with another London dealer, Andre de Clermont, who, along with an Egyptian jeweler with ties to Egypt's highest military leadership, maintained in sworn depositions the coin was the one once held by Farouk.
