A record price for a single coin was set July 30 at Sotheby's auction galleries in New York when an anonymous collector bid $6.6 million for the 1933 Saint-Gaudens $20 gold double eagle once owned by King Farouk of Egypt.
The 15 percent buyer's fee added to the hammer price brings the sale total to $7.59 million. The buyer of the coin is a U.S. collector who wishes to remain anonymous.
David Redden, vice chairman of Sotheby's and the caller of the auction, handed U.S. Mint Director Henrietta Holsman Fore a $20 Federal Reserve note in payment to officially monetize what until 6:35 p.m. had been a piece of gold struck with coin designs.
The $7.59 million bid eclipsed the $4.14 million paid in 1999 for the Childs specimen of Class I 1804 Draped Bust silver dollar.
The monetization was the first time in the 210-year history of the Mint that a coin was monetized by other than distributing the coin through the Federal Reserve System or the Mint cashier.
The net proceeds from the sale of the single-lot auction by Sotheby's, in conjunction with Stack's, will be divided between the Mint's Public Enterprise Fund and Stephen Fenton, the British coin dealer from whom the U.S. Secret Service seized the coin on Feb. 8, 1996.
Fewer than a dozen bidders had been financially pre-qualified to bid on the coin or have a representative in attendance. Selby Kiffer, a senior vice president in Sotheby's book and manuscripts division, bid on behalf of the client, who was placing his bids by phone.
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MINT DIRECTOR Henrietta Holsman Fore signs the certificate of monetization for the 1933 Saint-Gaudens double eagle as David Pickens, associate Mint director of sales and marketing, right, looks on
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Redden said the winning bidder is a U.S. collector, but one who requested total anonymity. It is not known what other coins the winning bidder possesses.
It took less than eight minutes of seesaw bidding between six different bidders, with the bulk of the bidding being done by Kiffer and another dealer in the auction room who was in touch with his client by cell phone. One of the early bidders was Barry Goldwater Jr., son of the late senator and presidential hopeful from Arizona, who bid on behalf of the National Collectors Mint. NCM has produced gold-plated replicas of the 1933 double eagle.
The more than 700 people in attendance were able to keep track of the $100,000 bidding increments in U.S. dollars, euros and British pounds as they were flashed on a television screen behind the auctioneer. The room erupted into a roar of applause once Redden slammed down the gavel on numismatic history.
After a brief break, the certificate of monetization was signed by Fore and David Pickens, associate Mint director of sales and marketing. The bill of sale and transfer title, an ornately multi-color document designed and engraved by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, was also signed by Mint officials, but will not be presented to the new owner of the coin until the purchase price has been paid, according to Mint counsel Greg Weinman.
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OFFICIAL BILL OF SALE and transfer title will be given to the new owner of the 1933 double eagle once the government receives payment. Shown is the $20 paid to the Mint for the monetization of the coin.
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The bill of sale and transfer title indicates the $20 gold coin is the only specimen that is legal to own among the 445,500 struck but never officially released. The coins were ordered destroyed after President Franklin Delano Roosevelt ordered a halt to the production and circulation of all gold coins. An unknown number of 1933 double eagles escaped the melting pot and slowly entered the collector market, until Treasury officials began confiscating the coins from their owners in the mid-1940s. Treasury officials contend that all 1933 double eagles are illegal to own and subject to confiscation.
King Farouk of Egypt once owned the coin just sold. The coin went into hiding after it was removed from the 1954 auction of the deposed king's vast coin collection. It surfaced publicly in 1996 when it was confiscated as it was brought into the United States. After a protracted legal battle, Mint officials and Fenton reached an agreement that resulted in the coin being offered for private ownership.
Weinman said the winning bidder has up to 35 days to complete the transaction.
The coin will be stored in a Mint vault until payment is made. Delivery of the coin to the new owner will come from the Mint.
