US Double Eagle gold coin sells for record-smashing $18.9M

Sotheby’s also auctioned off a British Guiana One-Cent Magenta stamp, issued in 1856, for a whopping $8.3 million, making it the most valuable stamp in history.

A 1933 Double Eagle, America’s last gold coin struck for circulation, sold for a record-shattering $18.9m at a Sotheby’s auction in New York on Tuesday, and the world’s rarest stamp raked in a whopping $8.3m. The coin, the only 1933 Double Eagle ever allowed to be privately owned, was expected to pull in somewhere along the lines of $10m to $15m at the auction but sold for far beyond that. “The 1933 Double Eagle has a richly captivating history which encapsulates large swathes of United States history and has been at the center of intrigue for more than 80 years,” Sotheby’s said in a statement.