Most Expensive Coin in the World

Short answer

• The most expensive coin in the world, by the highest price ever paid for a single coin at public auction, is the 1933 Saint-Gaudens double eagle. It sold at Sotheby's in New York on June 8, 2021, for $18,872,250, including the buyer's premium. Its face value is $20, so the sale price was about 944,000 times its face value. The coin is the only 1933 double eagle authorized for private ownership. Two other examples are held by the Smithsonian Institution, and the remaining known examples are in United States government custody. The previous auction record was $10,016,875, paid in January 2013 for a 1794 Flowing Hair silver dollar. A later private sale of the same 1794 Flowing Hair dollar, the Carter specimen, was reported at $12,000,000 in January 2022, but private sales are reported differently from public auctions, and that figure does not replace the public auction record. If the question means the most valuable coin in the world in the sense of the highest verified public sale price, the answer is still the 1933 double eagle, as of November 3, 2026.

Introduction

A coin with a face value of 20 dollars once sold for almost 19 million dollars. That single fact explains why the question in the title attracts so much attention, and also why it causes so much confusion. The coin in question was never spent in a shop. It was struck, recalled, melted in almost every case, fought over in court, and then sold twice at public auction for record prices. Its price is real, dated, and published. But the price alone does not explain the coin, and it does not make the coin the rarest coin in the world, the oldest coin in the world, or the coin with the highest face value ever stamped on metal. Those are separate titles, and this article keeps them separate.

This article answers the price question directly, then shows its working. It names the record holder, gives the exact sale price and date, explains the history that made one surviving example legal for a private collector to own, and lists the strongest runners up with their own dated sale prices. It also explains how record prices are measured, why auction prices and private sale prices are not counted in exactly the same way, and why a coin can be extremely valuable without being rare in the strictest sense. A short section near the end deals with a strange search phrase that pairs this question with a number written as 100000000000000000000 dollars. There is no record holding coin behind that phrase, and the article explains what it most likely is instead.

Every price in this article is tied to a sale date and a seller. Prices are given in United States dollars as reported at the time of sale. They are historical records, not current valuations, and nothing here is investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any coin.

How a Record Price Is Measured

Before naming runners up, it helps to say what counts as a record. Coin records are usually stated in one of three ways, and mixing them up is the most common source of error in online lists.

First, there is the public auction price. This is the price achieved in an open sale run by a named auction house, on a stated date, with a published result. It normally includes the buyer’s premium, which is the fee added to the hammer price, and sometimes other charges. When this article says a coin sold for a given figure, it means the published total price unless it says hammer price. The hammer price is the final bid called by the auctioneer, before fees are added. For the 1933 double eagle in 2021, the hammer price was $16,750,000 and the published total was $18,872,250. Both numbers are correct, but they answer different questions, so a careful list should say which one it is using.

Second, there is the private sale price. A private sale is a deal between a buyer and a seller that is not conducted as a public auction. Some private sales are later reported by reliable trade publications, and some are never confirmed in public at all. A reported private price can be genuine and still be weaker evidence than a published auction result, because the terms, the fees, and sometimes even the identity of the coin are not open to the same checking. This article includes one reported private sale, clearly labeled as such, and it does not let it displace the auction record.

Third, there is the asking price, the estimate, and the guide price. An asking price is what a seller hopes to receive. An estimate is what an auction house expects before the sale. A guide price is what a price guide suggests a coin might be worth. None of these is a sale, and none of them sets a record. Readers should be suspicious of any list that presents an asking price as if a sale had taken place.

There is also the question of currency and date. Record lists convert older sales into current dollars in some cases, but the standard practice for a record is to use the price as reported at the time, in the currency of the sale. This article follows that practice. A coin that sold for a large sum in 2013 has not necessarily gained or lost value since then, and its 2013 price should not be silently updated to a modern estimate.

Finally, a record price is a price for one specific physical coin, not for every coin of the same date and design. Two coins struck in the same year can sell for wildly different amounts because of their condition, their history, and how many examples survive in that condition. The grade of a coin, given by a professional grading service, is part of the record. The 1933 double eagle that set the record was graded MS-65 by Professional Coin Grading Service, known as PCGS. That grade describes a coin in mint state, meaning uncirculated, with only light marks. A different 1933 double eagle in poorer condition would not be expected to reach the same price, even if it could legally be sold, which it cannot.

The Record Holder: The 1933 Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle

What the coin is

The double eagle was a United States gold coin with a face value of $20. The name comes from the earlier eagle coin, which had a face value of $10, so a $20 coin was a double eagle. The Saint-Gaudens design, created by the sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, shows Liberty striding forward on one side, holding a torch in one hand and an olive branch in the other, with a flying eagle on the other side. President Theodore Roosevelt had asked Saint-Gaudens to improve American coin design, and the double eagle is widely regarded as one of the finest achievements in that effort. The design was used from 1907 to 1933.

The 1933 examples are the final year of the design. The Philadelphia Mint struck 445,500 double eagles dated 1933. That figure is confirmed by the United States Mint itself, which has stated that the coins were struck at Philadelphia and that Mint records clearly establish that no 1933 double eagles were ever issued or released to the public as legal tender. The coins were struck at the height of the Great Depression, just as the United States was abandoning the gold standard, and they were never meant to reach the public.

The coin is made of 90 percent gold and 10 percent copper, weighs about 33.40 grams, and measures 34 millimeters across. Those specifications are the standard specifications for the Saint-Gaudens double eagle series, and they matter for a simple reason. The gold in the coin, valued as metal alone, is worth only a small fraction of the record price. The record price was not paid for gold. It was paid for history, legality, condition, and the fact that only one example can be owned privately.

Why the coins were melted

In March 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt took a series of measures to deal with the banking crisis of the Great Depression, including a proclamation followed by executive orders and regulations that prohibited the payment of gold coin. The practical result for the 1933 double eagles was straightforward. The coins had been struck, but they were not released. Nearly the entire mintage was melted down and conveyed as bullion to Fort Knox. The United States Mint states that the only specimens to leave the Mint lawfully were two 1933 double eagles given to the Smithsonian Institution for preservation in the National Numismatic Collection.

That sentence is the key to the whole story. If every 1933 double eagle had been melted, there would be no record coin. If the coins had been released normally, they would be scarce but not legendary. Instead, a small number escaped the melting, and their legal status became the central question for the next 70 years.

How one coin became legal to own

The record coin traces its history to King Farouk of Egypt, a famous collector. An export license for the coin was granted in error, which allowed it to leave the United States and enter Farouk’s collection. After Farouk was deposed in 1952, his possessions were dispersed, and the coin eventually came back into the open in a way that forced the legal question to be settled. A Secret Service investigation in 1944 had already led to the recovery of nine stolen pieces over the following decade, and those pieces were melted. A tenth piece was recovered in 1996, and that case ended in a unique settlement under which that single coin was monetized and issued by the United States Mint.

The settlement is what makes the record coin different from every other 1933 double eagle in private hands. The coin was declared legal tender, the winning bidder in 2002 had to pay its $20 face value in addition to the bid, and the proceeds were split between the government and the owner. From that point on, this one coin, and only this one coin, could be owned privately without the buyer facing seizure. The United States Mint has since confirmed that ten further specimens surfaced in 2004 in the possession of the family of a Philadelphia jeweler, that the government won the resulting litigation in 2011, and that those ten specimens will be preserved as national numismatic treasures rather than melted, monetized, or auctioned. In other words, the supply of legally ownable 1933 double eagles remains exactly one.

The coin was first sold at auction under the settlement in July 2002, in a joint sale by Sotheby’s and Stack’s, for a total of $7,590,020, including fees. The hammer price was $6,600,000. At the time, that was itself a world record for a coin. The buyer was anonymous at the time and was later revealed as Stuart Weitzman, the shoe designer, who kept the coin for nearly 20 years and lent it for public display, including at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the New York Historical Society.

The 2021 record sale

On June 8, 2021, Sotheby’s in New York offered the coin as part of a three lot sale titled Three Treasures, Collected by Stuart Weitzman. The other two lots were famous stamps: the 1856 British Guiana one cent magenta and a plate block of the 1918 Inverted Jenny airmail stamp. Sotheby’s had estimated the coin at $10 million to $15 million. Bidding passed the estimate, and the hammer fell at $16,750,000. With the buyer’s premium and other charges, the published total was $18,872,250. The three lots together realized $32,039,250.

The result nearly doubled the previous auction record of $10,016,875, set in 2013 by the 1794 Flowing Hair silver dollar, and it was more than double what Weitzman had paid in 2002. CoinWorld, reporting the sale, described it as a record for any coin at auction, and PCGS, which had graded the coin MS-65 before the sale, described it the same way. The buyer was not publicly named. Weitzman said the proceeds would benefit charitable ventures, including the Weitzman Family Foundation.

As of November 3, 2026, no public auction result has surpassed $18,872,250 for a single coin. That date stamp matters. Records are made to be broken, and a private sale or a future auction could change the ranking. But a future sale has to be published and verified before it can replace this one, and an asking price or an estimate is not a sale.

Why This Coin Sold for So Much

A record price is rarely explained by one factor. In the case of the 1933 double eagle, five factors combined, and each one is worth understanding on its own, because the same factors appear, in weaker form, in every other coin on the runners up list. Readers who want the general principles behind coin values will find them set out in full in the companion article on what makes a coin valuable to collectors.

First, legal uniqueness. The coin is not merely scarce. It is the only example of its date that a private collector is allowed to own. That is a legal fact, not a matter of opinion, and it cannot be changed by finding another example, because any other example found would belong to the government. Collectors pay for certainty, and this coin offers a kind of certainty that no other coin can match.

Second, survival against the odds. The coin was supposed to have been melted. Its survival, its journey to Egypt and back, its seizure, its years in a Secret Service vault, and its eventual legal sale form a story that is far more dramatic than the story of a coin that was simply saved by a careful owner. Stories do not create value on their own, but a documented story that can be checked against Mint records, court records, and auction records adds a premium that an undocumented story cannot.

Third, design. The Saint-Gaudens double eagle is widely admired as a work of art, not just as currency. Liberty striding toward the viewer, with the rays of the sun behind her, and an eagle in flight on the reverse, gives the coin a visual appeal that photographs well and displays well. A beautiful coin is easier to exhibit, easier to publish, and easier to remember than an ugly rarity, and that visibility feeds demand.

Fourth, condition. The record coin is graded MS-65, which means it survived in uncirculated condition with only light marks. A coin that had been handled, scratched, or cleaned would not command the same price. Condition is graded on a 70 point scale by professional services, and at the top of the market, a single grade point can be worth millions of dollars. The grade is part of the record, not a detail to be left out.

Fifth, provenance. Provenance is the documented history of ownership. This coin can be traced from the Mint to King Farouk, through the legal settlement, to Stuart Weitzman, and then to the 2021 buyer. Each link in that chain is documented. A coin with gaps in its provenance, or with a history that cannot be checked, carries a risk that a well documented coin does not.

None of these factors involves the metal value of the coin. The gold content of a double eagle is just under one troy ounce of pure gold, and its metal value at any normal gold price is measured in thousands of dollars, not millions. Anyone who explains the record price by pointing to the price of gold has missed the point. The price was paid for the coin as a historical object, not as bullion.

The Runners Up

The table below lists the highest verified sale results after the record holder, ranked by sale price. It is a list of sale results, not a list of one entry per coin, so the same coin may appear twice when it has two qualifying sales. Ranks 2 and 3 are therefore the same coin, the Carter specimen 1794 Flowing Hair silver dollar, first at its reported private sale and then at its earlier public auction. Auction prices are given as published totals. The one private sale in the table is labeled as such. Figures are rounded in the table and given exactly in the text where the exact figure is published.

The 1794 Flowing Hair silver dollar

The 1794 Flowing Hair silver dollar is the first silver dollar struck by the United States, and it is the strongest runner up to the record. The finest known example, known as the Carter specimen after its former owner, was graded Specimen-66 by PCGS and was sold by Stack’s Bowers on January 24, 2013, for $10,016,875. Stack’s Bowers described the sale at the time as a new world record price for any coin, and it held that record until the 1933 double eagle passed it in 2021. The coin is believed by many experts to be the first silver dollar struck, although that specific claim is a matter of expert opinion based on its quality and preservation, not a fact recorded in Mint documents, and it should be read with that qualification.

The same coin was later reported to have changed hands in a private sale on January 27, 2022, for $12,000,000. That figure appears in published price lists, but it is a private sale, not a public auction result, and the terms were not published in the way an auction result is. It is included here because readers will meet the $12 million figure in other lists, and it is important to understand why it does not automatically replace the auction record. If a future public auction for the same coin exceeds $18,872,250, the ranking will change. Until then, the auction record and the private sale record are two different lists, and the 1933 double eagle leads the auction list by a wide margin.

A second 1794 Flowing Hair dollar, the Lord St. Oswald specimen, sold at Heritage Auctions on August 18, 2021, for $6,600,000. The existence of two different 1794 dollars at very different prices is a useful reminder that a record belongs to a specimen, not to a date. The date 1794 does not guarantee a multimillion dollar price. Condition, preservation, and provenance decide which example of a date reaches the top.

The 1787 Brasher Doubloon

The Brasher Doubloon is a privately minted gold coin from New York, made by the silversmith Ephraim Brasher in and after 1787, before the United States Mint existed. It is not a government coin at all, which makes its high price especially interesting. The finest known example, the EB on Wing variety, graded MS-65 by Numismatic Guaranty Corporation, known as NGC, sold at Heritage Auctions on January 21, 2021, for $9,360,000. Heritage described the sale as a world record for the most valuable gold coin ever sold at public auction, a narrower title than the overall coin record, and one that the Brasher Doubloon held only until the 1933 double eagle, which is also a gold coin, passed it five months later.

Only seven Brasher Doubloons are known to survive, and the record example is the finest of the seven. The coin is famous beyond numismatics, partly because it appears in Raymond Chandler’s 1942 novel The High Window, and partly because it represents a moment when private enterprise, not the federal government, supplied gold coins for commerce. Its price reflects its age, its survival, its condition, and its place at the very beginning of American coinage, before there was an American coinage system at all.

The 1822 half eagle and the 1804 dollar

The 1822 half eagle, a $5 gold coin, sold at Stack’s Bowers on March 25, 2021, for $8,400,000. Nearly 18,000 half eagles were struck in 1822, but virtually all were melted, and only three specimens are known to survive, two of them in the Smithsonian Institution. The record example is therefore one of only three known coins of its date, and the only one that a private collector can own. Its price is a clear case of survival, not mintage, deciding value. A mintage of 18,000 sounds large until almost all of it is gone.

The 1804 silver dollar is a different kind of rarity. Although dated 1804, the famous Class I examples were actually struck in the 1830s as presentation pieces for diplomatic gifts, not as circulating coins of 1804. One such example, graded PR-68 by PCGS, sold at Stack’s Bowers on August 17, 2021, for $7,680,000. The coin had once belonged to the Sultan of Muscat, which gives it a diplomatic provenance to match its diplomatic purpose. The 1804 dollar has been called the King of American Coins, and it appears repeatedly in high price lists because several different examples have sold for multimillion dollar prices over the years. Readers who want the full United States picture will find a specimen by specimen treatment in the companion article on the most valuable US coins.

Beyond the United States

The top of the price list is dominated by United States coins, but it is not exclusively American. The 1903 Fengtien tael of Qing China sold at Beijing Chengxuan in August 2022 for $6,900,000, and an Umayyad gold dinar, Ma’din Amir al-Mu’minin, dated AH 105 (AD 723), sold at Morton and Eden in April 2011 for about $6.0 million (£3.72 million including premium). The caliphal attribution of this dinar is disputed: two caliphs held office in AH 105, and Miles argues the caliph referred to is Hisham, not Yazid II. These results matter for two reasons. First, they show that record prices are not a purely American phenomenon. Second, they show how much of the list depends on the strength of the auction market in a given country at a given time. A coin from a country with a strong domestic collecting market can reach a higher price at a domestic auction than it might reach elsewhere, and currency conversion at the date of sale affects the dollar figure.

Older world rarities also appear lower down the list, including a Roman aureus of Marcus Junius Brutus, struck in 42 BC, which sold for about $4.2 million in October 2020, and a 1621 hundred ducat piece of Sigismund III Vasa, which sold for about $2.2 million in May 2025. These coins are far older than any American coin, yet they sell for less, which is a useful corrective to the idea that age alone creates value. Age helps only when it is combined with survival, condition, documentation, and demand.

The Record Timeline

The auction record has changed hands several times, and the timeline shows how quickly the top price has risen.

In July 2002, the 1933 double eagle set a record of $7,590,020 in its first legal sale. In January 2013, the 1794 Flowing Hair dollar passed it with $10,016,875. In June 2021, the 1933 double eagle reclaimed the record with $18,872,250, nearly doubling the previous figure in a single sale. That jump is unusually large, and it is worth asking why it happened. Part of the answer is the coin itself, which had not been offered at auction for 19 years. Part of the answer is the sale format, a three lot evening sale that attracted worldwide press attention. And part of the answer is the state of the rare coin market in 2021, when several other records were also set in the same year, including the Brasher Doubloon, the 1822 half eagle, and the 1804 dollar results listed above.

The timeline also shows why older lists go out of date. A list written in 2014 would name the 1794 dollar as the record holder. A list written in 2020 would still name it. A list written today that still names it has not been updated since June 2021. Readers checking an old article should look for the date of the list, not just the name at the top.

Most Expensive, Most Valuable, Rarest, and Highest Face Value

These four phrases sound similar, but they ask different questions, and the answers are different coins.

Most expensive usually means the highest price paid, and on the public auction evidence, that is the 1933 double eagle. Most valuable is often used to mean the same thing, and this article treats the two phrases as the same question when they are applied to a single coin sold at auction. Some writers use most valuable to mean the highest estimated current worth, which is a different and much softer claim, because an estimate is not a sale. Where this article says most valuable, it means highest verified sale price, and it says so.

Rarest means fewest known surviving examples, and that is a different question again. The 1933 double eagle is the only example authorized for private ownership, but it is not the coin with the fewest known examples overall, because other examples exist in government custody and in the Smithsonian. The companion article on the rarest coin in the world examines that question in full, including pattern coins with only one known example held in a museum. A coin can be the most expensive without being the rarest, and a coin can be the rarest without ever coming up for sale.

Highest face value is different again. Face value is the denomination stamped on the coin, not what it sells for. The 1933 double eagle has a face value of $20, which is modest. Other coins have been struck with face values in the hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars, usually as large bullion or commemorative pieces, and their market prices are often close to their metal value rather than far above it. A high face value does not predict a high auction price, and a low face value does not prevent one. The 1933 double eagle proves the second point about as dramatically as any coin ever has.

There is also the question of age and fame versus price. The widow’s mite coin, a small bronze coin of the ancient world, is famous far beyond its market price, because of its place in a well known story. It is the opposite of the 1933 double eagle in price terms, and the contrast is instructive. Fame, age, and historical interest do not automatically produce a record price. The record price requires, in addition, scarcity, condition, documentation, legality, and a buyer willing to pay on the day.

The Giant Number Search Phrase

Some readers arrive at this topic through a search phrase that reads, in full, 100000000000000000000 dollar most expensive coin in the world. That string of digits is the number one hundred quintillion, written out as a 1 followed by 20 zeros. It is worth addressing directly, because the phrase looks like it is asking about a specific coin, and it is not.

There is no coin with a face value of one hundred quintillion dollars, and there is no record holding coin that matches that number. No auction house has published a sale of a coin for one hundred quintillion dollars, and no mint has issued a coin denominated in that amount. The phrase appears to be a fragment: a very large number, probably typed or generated as a curiosity, attached to the ordinary question about the most expensive coin. Similar fragments circulate online alongside novelty notes and decorative pieces that print enormous numbers on them for effect. Those pieces are not legal coins, they never circulated as money, and they hold no such value. Collectors sometimes meet them as jokes, souvenirs, or advertising items, and they should not be confused with genuine currency.

A related idea that readers sometimes confuse with this phrase is the trillion dollar coin proposal, discussed in the United States during debt ceiling debates. That proposal imagined minting a platinum coin with a face value of one trillion dollars and depositing it to avoid borrowing, but the coin was never minted, the proposal was rejected by the Treasury and the Federal Reserve, and it has nothing to do with the auction record. A coin that was proposed but never struck cannot be the most expensive coin in the world, because it was never sold.

The honest answer to the fragment phrase, then, is simple. If the question is which coin holds the record price, the answer is the 1933 double eagle at $18,872,250. If the question is whether a one hundred quintillion dollar coin exists as a record holder, the answer is no. The number is not a price, not a denomination, and not a record. It is a fragment attached to a real question, and the real question has a real answer.

What the Record Does Not Mean

A record price is often misread in three ways, and each misreading is worth correcting.

First, a record price is not a valuation of every coin of the same type. The fact that one 1933 double eagle sold for $18,872,250 does not mean that any old gold coin is worth millions, or that a common double eagle from another year is worth anything close to that figure. Most double eagles trade for amounts related to their gold content and condition, not for record prices. The record belongs to one specimen with a unique legal status.

Second, a record price is not a prediction. The 1933 double eagle sold for more in 2021 than in 2002, but that does not guarantee that it will sell for more again, or that any coin bought today will rise in value. Coin prices depend on the state of the market, the number of buyers at the top end, and the availability of the specific coin. This article gives no investment advice, and it does not recommend buying, selling, or holding any coin.

Third, a record price is not proof that a coin in your possession is genuine or valuable. The market for rare coins includes convincing copies, altered dates, and restrikes, and the higher the headline price, the stronger the incentive to produce them. A coin that looks like a 1933 double eagle is almost certainly not one, because the genuine examples are accounted for. Anyone who believes they have found a rare coin should have it examined by a reputable dealer or grading service, should not clean it, and should not rely on a photograph or an online list to value it. Cleaning a coin can destroy value, and an ungraded coin should never be described with a grade it has not received.

How to Check a Record Claim

When a new claim appears that a coin has broken the record, a reader can check it in a few minutes with four questions.

Who sold it? A named auction house with a published result is stronger evidence than an unnamed dealer or a social media post. When did it sell? A date allows the result to be checked against the auction house’s own archive. What exactly sold? The date, denomination, variety, grade, and provenance should all be stated, because a vague description can hide the fact that a different coin was sold. And what was included in the price? The hammer price, the buyer’s premium, and any taxes or fees should be distinguished, because the total and the hammer price differ by millions at this level.

If any of those four questions cannot be answered from the source making the claim, the claim should be treated as unconfirmed. That rule applies to record claims, to private sale claims, and to the giant number phrase discussed above. A claim that cannot be checked is not a record, however widely it is repeated.

Conclusion

The most expensive coin in the world, by the highest price ever paid for a single coin at public auction, is the 1933 Saint-Gaudens double eagle, sold at Sotheby’s in New York on June 8, 2021, for $18,872,250. It holds the record because it combines a beautiful design, uncirculated condition, a documented history, and a legal status that no other 1933 double eagle shares. The runners up, led by the 1794 Flowing Hair dollar and the 1787 Brasher Doubloon, show the same ingredients in different proportions, and they show why a record belongs to a specimen, not to a date or a design.

The record will probably be broken one day. When it is, the new record will be set the same way this one was: by a named auction house, on a stated date, for a specific coin, with a published total price. Until that sale happens and is verified, the 1933 double eagle remains the answer, and any list that names a different coin should be asked to show its sale.

FAQ

Which coin is the most expensive coin in the world?

The 1933 Saint-Gaudens double eagle. It sold at Sotheby’s in New York on June 8, 2021, for $18,872,250, including the buyer’s premium. That is the highest price ever paid for a single coin at public auction, as of November 3, 2026.

What is the most valuable coin in the world?

On the same evidence, the same coin. Most valuable is often used to mean the same as most expensive when it refers to a verified sale price. If most valuable is used to mean an estimated current worth rather than a sale, the answer becomes a matter of opinion, and this article does not offer one.

How much did the most expensive coin sell for?

The published total was $18,872,250. The hammer price, before the buyer’s premium and other charges, was $16,750,000. The pre sale estimate was $10 million to $15 million, which the bidding exceeded.

What is the face value of the 1933 double eagle?

Its face value is $20. The sale price was about 944,000 times its face value. Face value and market price are different things, and this coin is the most dramatic example of the gap between them.

Why is the 1933 double eagle so expensive?

Because it is the only 1933 double eagle authorized for private ownership, it survived a recall and melting that destroyed nearly the entire mintage of 445,500 coins, it is in uncirculated MS-65 condition, it has a documented history from King Farouk of Egypt through a court settlement to Stuart Weitzman, and it carries one of the most admired designs in American coinage.

Is the 1933 double eagle legal to own?

This one example is legal to own, because it was monetized and issued under a court settlement before its 2002 sale. Other known 1933 double eagles are in the Smithsonian Institution or in United States government custody, and they are not available for private ownership. A coin that looks like a 1933 double eagle should not be assumed to be legal to own or to sell.

What is the second most expensive coin?

By public auction price, the second highest result is $10,016,875, paid in January 2013 for the Carter specimen 1794 Flowing Hair silver dollar at Stack’s Bowers. A later private sale of the same coin was reported at $12,000,000 in January 2022, but private sales are reported differently from auctions and do not replace the auction record.

Is there a 100000000000000000000 dollar coin?

No. There is no coin with a face value of one hundred quintillion dollars, and no coin has sold for that amount. The phrase is a fragment attached to the ordinary question about the most expensive coin. Novelty pieces printed with enormous numbers are not legal coins and hold no such value.

Is the most expensive coin also the rarest coin?

No. Rarest means fewest known surviving examples, and that is a different question with a different answer. The 1933 double eagle is unique in private ownership, but other examples exist in government and museum custody. The companion article on the rarest coin in the world examines that question separately.

Could another coin break the record?

Yes, in principle. A future public auction could exceed $18,872,250, and a verified private sale could exceed it as well. Until such a sale is published by a named seller with a date and a total price, the 1933 double eagle remains the record holder. Asking prices and estimates do not count.

Sources & references

• United States Mint, 1933 Double Eagles Display, press release on the 1933 double eagles, the melting of the 445,500 coins struck at Philadelphia, and the two examples lawfully given to the Smithsonian Institution: https://www.usmint.gov/news/press-releases/mint-to-display-1933-double-eagles-at-ana-worlds-fair-of-money
• Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History, National Numismatic Collection, including its 1933 double eagle record and the statement that production of gold coinage was halted early in 1933 and the coins were not released to the public: https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object-groups/national-numismatic-collection?edan_fq%5B0%5D=unit_code%3ANMAH+OR+unit_code%3ANMAH-AF+OR+unit_code%3ANMAH_BL+OR+unit_code%3ANMAH_YT&page=3
• CoinWorld, 1933 double eagle tops $18.8 million for new record, reporting the June 8, 2021 Sotheby's sale total of $18,872,250 and the 2002 sale total of $7,590,020: https://www.coinworld.com/news/us-coins-page/1933-double-eagle-tops-18-point-8-million-dollars-for-new-record
• Professional Coin Grading Service, The Majestic 1933 Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle, confirming the MS-65 grade, the June 8, 2021 sale price, and that only one example is legal for private ownership: https://www.pcgs.com/news/majestic-1933-saint-gaudens-double-eagle
• Stack's Bowers Galleries, Stack's Bowers Sets World Record With Sale of 1794 Silver Dollar for $10,016,875, reporting the January 24, 2013 sale and the previous 2002 record: https://stacksbowers.com/sets-world-record/
• Heritage Auctions, Heritage Auctions' World Record Numismatic Events Achieve $90.68 Million, press release reporting the January 21, 2021 sale of the 1787 Brasher Doubloon for $9,360,000: https://www.ha.com/heritage-auctions-press-releases-and-news/heritage-auctions-world-record-numismatic-events-achieve-90.68-million.s?releaseId=4083
• List of most expensive coins, price table used as a finding aid for the runners up, with auction house and date for each entry, cross checked against the auction house sources above where available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_coins
• Coin-Identifier, 1000 Dollar Bill, noting that novelty pieces bearing numbers such as 100000000000000000000 never circulated and hold no legal status: https://coin-identifier.com/blog/coins-overview/us-1000-dollar-bill