This video was made possible by ExpressVPN. Start browsing the web securely with three
months free by going to expressvpn.com/HAI. 1933. Double. Eagle. It’s a series of words that means nothing
to most people, but that inspires fantastic emotions in a very particular group of individuals. Like “Szechuan sauce” for Rick and Morty-heads
or “brokered convention” for political junkies or “Tampa, Florida” for fraternity
members, so too does 1933 Double Eagle provoke chills of excitement for its fans: coin collectors…
who you can also call numismatists, if you want to prove you have the best words. You see, from 1907 to 1932, the United States
Mint produced something called the Saint-Gaudens double eagle gold coin. It was called Saint-Gaudens because that was
the name of the man who designed it, it was called the double eagle because an eagle was
worth $10 and it was worth $20, and it was called a gold coin because its gold-flavored
design was inspired by the 2017 Brockhampton song entitled Gold. However, in 1933, the United States was going
through this thing called the big bummer, which is also sometimes referred to as the
great depression, and back then, the United States’ currency was on something called
the gold standard—every piece of currency issued by the Federal Reserve had to be backed
up by a piece of actual gold held in a government vault. Of course, that meant that in order to make
the money printer go brrr you had to have actual gold, and it did so happen that the
US President, Franklin Roosevelt, requested for the money printer to go brrr. Therefore, FDR issued Executive Order 6102,
which forbade “the hoarding of gold coin, gold bullion and gold certificates within
the continental United States.” By the way, if you were wondering, we moved
off the gold standard in 1971, and now the US Dollar is backed up by nothing by trust,
apple pie, and the American Dream. Anyways, when FDR issued executive order 6102,
the US Mint had already produced a whole new batch of double gold eagles—but, of course,
the US Government didn’t want to be distributing more gold coins when their whole goal was
to have people turn in all their gold coins, so, they ordered all those beautiful new 1933
double gold eagles to be melted down, apart from two which were to be presented to the
US National Numismatic Collection, which is a thing that exists for some reason. And that should have been the end of it, but
we’re only about halfway through our six minute watch-time, so you know it isn’t,
because while there should have been only 2 left, we now know that at least 22 remained—which,
of course, means that twenty were stolen. That’s why ownership of these coins is illegal—because
all but two were supposed to be melted down in 1933, any 1933 double eagle currently out
in the world can only exist—and not be a melted down hunk of metal—because it was
stolen from the US Treasury in 1933. That’s why, in 1944, the US Secret Service
put together a task force to investigate rumors of circulating 1933 double gold eagles, because
the Secret Service’s job is both to protect the president and to investigate currency-related
crimes. After all, why just have the coolest sounding
job in government when you could also have the most-boring sounding job in government? Well, maybe not most boring—I’m looking
at you, comptrollers. Anyways, in 1944, the Secret Service tracked
down seven coins—stolen by a US Mint cashier and passed through Philadelphia jewelry dealer
Israel Switt—and melted them down. Soon after, they found and melted another
one, and in 1952, one more. Then, in 2005, over a half-century later,
they found ten additional 1933 gold eagles in possession of Switt’s family, and after
a lengthy court battle, the coins were declared to still be US government property, and are
now held in a vault at Fort Knox. But if you’ve been counting carefully, you’ll
have noticed that that’s only 21 coins—2 in the numismatic collection, 9 melted down,
and 10 in government possession—but, of course, in total, there were 22. You see, before any stolen double eagles were
made known to the US government, King Farouk of Egypt bought one from Israel Switt in 1944,
and when he did, he applied for an export license from the US treasury. Now, of course, what should have happened
was the treasury said “actually sorry, but no—that coin is illegal to own and the one
you have was clearly stolen from US in 1933, and we need it back,” but what they actually
said was, “uh… sure.” That “uh, sure” was the result of a mistake
by an unnamed treasury official, whose identity we can only guess at, and as a result, the
coin made its way to Egypt. The government wanted it back, but in 1944,
a few countries were involved in a bit of a tussle, and Egypt was sort of in the middle
of it, and the US figured then probably wasn’t the time to try to get their coin back. In 1952, King Farouk was overthrown in a coup
for silly things like corruption, and the coin was supposed to be returned to America,
but then, when the world needed it most, it vanished. It didn’t resurface until 1996, when its
holder, a British coin dealer named Stephen Fenton, was tricked into selling it as part
of a string operation by the Secret Service. Fenton was arrested, but after a long court
battle, the US government and Fenton agreed to sell the coin at Sotheby’s and split
the profits—profits which totaled $7.59 million, when the coin was sold to an anonymous
buyer who is now the proud owner of the most expensive $20 in the world. If you want to spend exorbitant sums buying
coins online—or, if you want to do anything else online—you should use ExpressVPN. I’m very excited to have them sponsoring
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TL;DW it was never issued, so if you have one, it was stolen from the US Government.
I like how the thumbnail is implying that the coin is over seven feet tall.
This guy is incredibly unfunny. Couldn't make it.
The cultural touchstone for a song called Gold isn't Spandau Ballet any more? Or is this guy's sense of humour just that out of whack?
This sounds like the back story to a fun Wes Anderson heist movie.
It’s illegal to own a coin that is over 7ft tall.
Will they take my oil?
Just the fact that the coin has a sign saying hai police makes me want to laf