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The reverse of a 1933-dated specimen of the double eagle ($20 gold piece) designed by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. 445,500 specimens were minted with this date, but after the Gold Reserve Act withdrew the legal tender status of gold coins and outlawed most private possession of gold, almost all were destroyed.
Only two double eagles were intentionally spared; they are in the National Numismatic Collection of the National Museum of American History. But at least twenty more were stolen by an unidentified person. Of these, nine were melted down in the 1940s and 50s and ten more are held at Fort Knox. Another, which had belonged to King Farouk of Egypt, was recovered in 1996 and sold at auction in 2002 to an anonymous bidder for almost 7.6 million dollars.Coin: Augustus Saint-Gaudens; photo: United States Mint