1933 Saint Gaudens Double Eagle (obverse).
Last sold for $7,590,020 in 2002.

Stuart A. Weitzman founded the manufacturing company Seymour Shoes with his brother Warren and father, Seymour. After his father died in 1965, Stuart and Warren ran the company until selling it in 1971. Stuart continued to design shoes for the company. He bought back the family business in 1994.

Weitzman continued to design shoes with unique designs and materials not used before. He was creating one-of-a-kind designs for stars to wear on the red carpet. Top stars and models consider Stuard Weitzman shoes the must-have accessory to any designer outfit.

Weitzman collected stamps as a child. As he collected, Weitzman became fascinated with very rare stamps. Although his collection is modest in size, it consists of two rarest stamps, the only surviving British Guiana One-Cent Magenta stamp and the 1918 24-Cent Inverted Jenny Plate Block stamps. Sotheby’s will be selling both stamps in an auction on June 8, 2021.

As part of the auction announcement, Sotheby’s revealed that Weitzman was also selling the only 1933 Saint Gaudens Double Eagle gold coin that is legal to own. It is the first time the identity of the coin’s owner is publicly known.

Stuart Weitzman was the winning bidder of the Sotheby/Stack’s auction held on July 30, 2002, held at the Sotheby’s headquarters in New York City. When the hammer fell, Weitzman anonymously purchased the coin for $6.6 million plus a 15-percent buyer’s premium. Sotheby’s famously paid the $20 face value to the U.S. Mint to monetize the coin. The final sale price was $7,590,020. At the time, it was almost twice the previous record paid for a coin.

Although there are other one-of-a-kind coins, none have the same story as the 1933 Farouk-Fenton Double Eagle. It is a unique story that could only be born out of the circumstances of the Great Depression and the documented corruption at the Philadelphia Mint.

The coin and stamps will be on public view by appointment at Sotheby’s in New York until March 17 and June 5-7.

The Double Eagle and British Guiana stamp carries a pre-auction estimate of $10-15 million. The Inverted Jenny is estimated to be worth $5-7 million.

I expect the sale of the coin will break the record for the price of a single coin. The coin is likely to sell for more than $12 million, including the buyer’s premium.


Auction preview video courtesy of Sotheby’s
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