As recently as the early twentieth century, the primary form of currency in circulation around the world were gold coins.
During the time that the Double Eagle Gold Coin was being minted in the USA there have two major versions along with six minor deviations of it produced. The main two versions are the Liberty Head or Coronet which was minted between 1849 and 1907 and the Saint Gaudens which was minted between 1907 and 1933.
But for the Liberty version of this gold coin there have been 3 different versions of it minted and these are as follows:-
1. Liberty Head with no motto but with a value on it of "Twenty D." and was produced between 1849 and 1866. 2. The Liberty Head with a motto and its value again showing as "Twenty D." and this one was minted from 1866 until 1876. 3. The final version of the Liberty Head gold coin to be minted between 1877 and 1907 again had a motto on it but the value showing on it was "Twenty Dollars".
As for the Saint Gaudens Double Eagle Gold Coin which began being minted in 1907 the 3 versions available of this are as follows:-
1. The 1907 version of the coin had a high relief, no motto and Roman numerals were used on it. 2. The 1907 to 1908 version of the Saint Gaudens coin instead of a high relief came with a low one and again had no motto but instead of using Roman numerals, Arabic ones were used instead. 3. Whilst the 1908 to 1933 Saint Gaudens coin again had a low relief and Arabic numeral s as the 1907 and 1908 versions did but came with a motto now.
For some reason in 1933 the then President of the United States of America, Franklin D Roosevelt chose to stop the coinage of gold and because of this it became illegal for people to own such metal. However collectors of coins were actually able to retain the ones they already had and except for one time no Double Eagle Gold Coins were ever legally released that were made in 1933.
However some of the coins that were actually minted at this time were stolen from the US Government and in the intervening years many have been recovered. Yet in 2002 one of these 1933 Double Eagle Gold Coins was put up for sale at an auction. The lucky person who purchased the coin paid $7,590,020 (US Dollars) for it.
Previous to this the highest price ever paid for any old coinage was $4,140,000 for an 1804 Silver Dollar. The reason why this particular Double Eagle Gold Coin reached its vast auction sum because it is only one now that the US Government has deemed legal for a person to own. But just because this one sold for such a vast sum unfortunately no others are likely to go for this kind of money and can not be legally sold as they have not been deemed as being legal by the US Government.
