Rare $20 ‘double eagle’ gold coin sells for $1.44 million at auction

Avid coin collectors jumped at the chance to get their hands on a rare $20 “double eagle” gold coin at a Southern California auction house Tuesday afternoon, but only one walked away victorious after paying a hefty price.

A rare $20 “double eagle” gold coin from 1870 has sold for a staggering $1.44 million at a Southern California auction.

Only 3,789 of these coins were ever produced, and an estimated 40 to 50 are still in existence, according to John Kraljevich, who specializes in coin history at Stack's Bowers Galleries, which handled the auction.

The coin was minted in Carson City, Nevada, and is the finest grade coin of its type known to exist, according to the Professional Coin Grading Service, the industry standard.

The last time this specific coin was sold was at a Stack's auction in 1986, when it went for $23,100.

The identity of the buyer was not disclosed by the auction house.

Prior to 1849, the highest denomination for a gold coin was $10, known as the eagle. The $20 double eagle was authorized after the California Gold Rush brought an abundance of gold supply, according to Kraljevich.

“This thing was totally off everybody’s radar,” Kraljevich said of the coin. “When this thing appeared kind of out of the woodwork after being off the market for 25 years, 30 years, it was almost like a new discovery.”

The coin was sold from the Bernard Richards collection, and by the time the live auction reached it, the bid price had already reached $800,850, far outpacing the other coins in the catalogue.

However, the final selling price fell short of the auction's prediction that it would break the $2 million barrier.

The second finest coin was sold in an auction for $1.62 million in November 2021.

According to Kraljevich, the price of collector's coins went up substantially during the COVID-19 pandemic, as people turned to investing in their hobbies.

The value of the gold itself, which in the coin is just under one ounce, is worth roughly $2,600.