Illegal Tender: Gold, Greed and the Mystery of the Lost 1933 Double Eagle Hardcover - 2004

It's the stuff myths are made of: the story of a celebrated artefact - the 1933 twenty-dollar gold piece - and its incredible journey from the deathbed of a famous artist to a sybaritic Egyptian king to a vault in the World Trade Centre to a record-breaking auction in July 2002, where it was sold for more than USD 7.5 million. In ILLEGAL TENDER David Tripp tells a riveting tale of greed, intrigue and deception as it follows the once-secret trajectory of this amazing coin over the course of nearly a century. In 1905 President Theodore Roosevelt commissioned America's greatest sculptor, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, to design what became America's most beautiful coin. At the height of the Great Depression, President Franklin Roosevelt took America off the gold standard and the newly minted but unissued 1933 Double Eagles were melted down. A few escaped, purloined, but were tracked down in a relentless investigation by the Secret Service, confiscated, and destroyed. But somehow, one survived. With its cast of kings, presidents, government agents, shadowy dealers and crooks, ILLEGAL TENDER will keep readers guessing about this priceless disk of gold - the coin that shouldn't be and almost wasn't - until the very end.