MINT TO DISPLAY THREE 1933 DOUBLE EAGLES

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V21 2018 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 21, Number 32, August 12, 2018, Article 10

This is old news now, but the on-again, off-again U.S. Mint exhibit of 1933 Double Eagles is on again for this week's ANA event in Philadelphia. Here's the Mint press release, to which I've added an image (which may not be of one of the pieces to be exhibited). -Editor

The United States Mint announced today that it will display three of the nation's 1933 Double Eagle Gold Coins in booth 218 at the American Numismatic Association's World's Fair of Money in Philadelphia from August 14 to August 18.

The display will feature two of the ten pieces recovered by the government in 2004. Those coins were the subject of 11 years of litigation, which was resolved last year in favor of the government. The Mint will also display the previously undisclosed specimen that was voluntarily and unconditionally given over to the government by a private citizen who requested to remain anonymous.

In March of 1933, as one of the many measures designed to reverse the Great Depression, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt issued a proclamation prohibiting payment of gold coin. This resulted in the melting of 445,500 1933-dated Double Eagles previously struck at the Philadelphia Mint. Mint records clearly establish that no 1933 $20 Double Eagles were ever issued or released to the public as legal tender. The only specimens to leave the Mint lawfully were two 1933 Double Eagles provided to the Smithsonian Institution for preservation in the National Numismatics collection. Subsequently, one specimen recovered in 1996 became the subject of a unique settlement. The coin was monetized, issued by the United States Mint, and sold at auction in 2002 for $7.6 million.

Unlike nine specimens that were recovered during the 1940s and 50s, none of the specimens in Mint custody will be melted. United States Mint Director David J. Ryder said, "The United States Mint recognizes all of the country's recovered 1933 Double Eagles as national numismatic treasures."

What the story doesn't tell us is what will happen to the coins after the exhibit ends. The coins now belong to the people. Shouldn't the people have a say in what's to be done with them?

One idea would be to put nine of them on permanent display at different public locations where security is adequate. (The Smithsonian Institution already has two specimens, so should not receive additional coins.) How about one each at the U. S. Mints in Philadelphia, Denver and San Francisco, and six more at Federal Reserve banks in New York and other locations throughout the country? The tenth one could be kept as a traveling exhibit, at coin shows and the like.

What do you think? What do E-Sylum readers think? Perish the thought of melting them!

Do you know what Federal agency is in charge of them? Maybe that agency would be willing to run a poll. What is this hocus-pocus about "monetizing" the specimen, ex-Farouk, in private hands? Does the Mint have a negative $20 ledger entry for this specimen that's been carried on the books all these years that has to be balanced out? I'm not an accountant — but curious.