US coin fetches €5m euro at auction
An American gold coin with an original face value of $20 has became the world's most expensive piece of loose change after it sold for €5.09m.
London-based coin dealer Stephen Fenton is to pick up about half the cash from the auction, held in New York.
The sole surviving US Double Eagle is dubbed the "Holy Grail" of coins.
The coin, which at today's exchange rate would be worth about €25.50, was originally one of 500,000 minted in America in 1933.
But under emergency measures to tackle the Depression, President Franklin Roosevelt ordered them all to be melted down before they went into circulation.
One went missing and its whereabouts remained a mystery for 60 years until Mr Fenton, 49, tried to sell it to US Secret Service agents posing as coin collectors in New York in 1996.
He said it was rightfully his as he had traced legal ownership back to King Farouk from Egypt who was given presidential permission to own the coin.
Following a five-year legal battle a deal was struck for the money from yesterday's sale at Sotheby's in New York to be divided between Mr Fenton and the US Treasury.
David Pickens, Associate Director at United States Mint says the anonymous buyer has got the first and only Double Eagle to be "issued" by the American government.
