| abstract | - The 1933 Double Eagle is a $20 gold coin and one of the rarest and most valuable U.S. coins. Although 445,500 were made, the U.S. Mint planned to melt down all but 2 of them, but some were stolen (not to the mint's knowledge). 20 stolen coins have been recovered. The two coins that were not meant to be melten are in the National Numistatic Collection. Ten are held in Fort Knox, while one is in a private collection. It was sold in 2007 for $7.59 million (the second highest auction coin price in history). Some of these coins circulated around collectors for a few years until the Secret Service became aware of them. They began an investigation to retrieve and destroy them in March 1944. During the fist year of the investigation seven coins were found and destroyed at the mint. The following year an eighth coin was destroyed. They caught the theif, Philadelphia jeweler Israel Switt, who admitted to selling the nine found coins to collectors, but claimed he couldn't remember where he got them.
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