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Curse Double Eagle APR FEAT Double Eagle.lyt (R/O) 2/27/04 10:18 AM Page 1 ° CURSE OF THE DOUBLE EAGLE NEVER BEFORE HAS A SINGLE GOLD PIECE INSPIRED SUCH FEVERISH DESIRE AMONG MEN—OR ° HELD SUCH DISASTROUS CONSEQUENCES. A RARE LOOK AT THE WORLD’S MOST EXPENSIVE COIN BY BRYAN CHRISTY All eyes turn forward as David Redden, Digital counters loom above the stage to Sotheby’s vice chairman and top auctioneer, track the bidding in dollars, euros and mounts his pulpit. A silver-haired man with pounds. “This will not be a long sale,” Red- K large ears and dark eyes, he adjusts his den announces. “It will be a great moment.” microphone and picks up his gavel. It is July Redden’s specialty is selling the rarest of 30, 2002. A congregation of millionaires the rare. He has taken 130 crates of bones Y sits in rows of padded chairs for an auction and sold them as the most complete Tyran- more than half a century in the making. nosaurus rex in history. He has flogged Soviet There are no cheap seats tonight—it’s stand- space suits and capsules. He has even auc- M ing room only for the relative unfortunates tioned off the deed to a lunar rover that will crowded in the back of the main Sotheby’s most likely never return to earth. Most of all, C salesroom. In the gallery’s 12 private sky- though, he traffics in stories. boxes, a few guests have drawn the curtains. The key to selling rarities is provenance: Others sip wine in plain view. Who owned it and how badly do you want Onstage, a pedestal holds a glinting your name added to the list? An ob- circle of metal less than an inch and ject’s story is what gives it value. a half in diameter. It is the only Tonight’s coin has a provenance item up for bid: a $20 U.S. gold as great as any coin in American coin dated 1933—the legendary history: Nearly 70 years ago it Saint-Gaudens double eagle was stolen from the U.S. Mint. (“Saint-Gaudens” after its de- According to the auction cat- signer, “double eagle” because alog, “no 1933 double eagle $10 coins are known as eagles). could, or can, be legitimately B f 13Pica Left 8/00 ° —MONTH 00—DOUBLE EAGLE—P 66—PROOF 1—0/00/00—TK APR FEAT Double Eagle.lyt (R/O) 2/27/04 10:18 AM Page° 2 ° K Y M C PHOTOGRAPH BY RICHARD IZUI f B —MONTH 00—DOUBLE EAGLE—P 67—PROOF 1—0/00/00—TK ° 8/00 13Pica Right APR FEAT Double Eagle.lyt (R/O) 2/27/04 10:18 AM Page 3 ° owned by any individual—until this one. dled an ounce of gold, and this one, all who have come in contact with her. Until now.” Apart from two 1933 double shining in the spotlight, seems especially As it turns out, Redden is about to eagles on display at the Smithsonian, Red- ethereal. Experts call it the most remark- drop the hammer on what may be the den’s coin is believed to be the only one of able coin ever produced in America—the biggest coin scam in history. The object on its type, for decades rumored to exist only Mona Lisa of coins, the Holy Grail. Up display this evening may or may not be in the back rooms of the most devout col- the coin Redden and company have led lectors. Tonight the U.S. Mint is a Sothe- everyone to believe it is. And in an irony by’s client. Together they have spread the consistent with the coin’s history, a felon word of the coin’s dark, illegitimate will sell the government’s stolen passage through the vaults of coin: The government’s auction- wealthy and unscrupulous eer, Sotheby’s principal owner men—a history of personal Alfred Taubman, will report betrayals, lost fortunes to federal prison the and intrigue. Only fleet- morning after the sale ing reference is made to because of a price- more recent crimes— fixing scandal. All of how it was smuggled which only enhances into the country, the true account of how the British coin the 1933 double dealer who will eagle, the one that walk away with never made its way half the money to- into the papers. It’s night was once led an astonishing tale from the Waldorf- of deception and Astoria hotel in double-dealing, handcuffs—and the proving that money auction catalog con- changes everything— tains just one mention even the law. of the wiretaps and the Nine minutes after undercover sting that he began, Redden slams brought the coin to light. down his gavel on the win- Redden and his team ning bid of $6.6 million. The ° have spent months turning the buyer is anonymous. Including coin into a star, emphasizing its sin- 15 percent in buyer’s fees and $20 gularity and mystery. Matt Lauer wears tagged on to mark the face value of the white gloves to hold it on the Today show. coin, Redden has just shattered the The New York Times gives a photograph world record for a coin sold at public of the coin the entire upper fold of its A rarity revealed: This 1933 double eagle inspired auction: $7,590,020. Metropolitan section. During its public- passion, desperation and greed in top collectors. Someone now owns a very odd story. relations tour, the double eagle travels by close, however, the coin seems fairly un- K armored car, airplane, train and limousine remarkable. On the face, a zaftig Lady THE BAIT convoy, protected alternately by the U.S. Liberty, thick-limbed and masculine, On December 8, 1995, an unseason- Secret Service, U.S. Mint police, Federal strides forward. She holds a freedom ably warm day in Amarillo, Texas, Y Reserve Bank security, New York City po- torch in her right hand, an olive branch agent Dave Freriks of the U.S. Secret lice, the California Highway Patrol, the in her left. The tip of her nose is a bit Service pulled up to the Santa Fe U.S. Army and corporate security teams. worn, and one leg is scratched and pitted. Restaurant & Bar. Shortly before lunch- M time, Freriks, all six feet and 230 COIN DEALING IS A SCREW-THE-WIDOW PROFESSION. pounds of him, lifted himself out of his C car and walked up to a white Cadillac FOR A DEALER, THE BIG MONEY COMES WHEN A DeVille idling in the parking lot. A WIDOW OR GRANDKIDS WANT TO GET RID OF THOSE farm boy who left the family spread in 1957 for a career in criminal justice, DUSTY TRAYS THEY FOUND IN A SAFE-DEPOSIT BOX. Freriks headed the two-agent Lubbock office, 100 miles to the south, and dealt It is given its own room at Fort Knox. Though her hair still snakes in the wind, mostly with counterfeiting, tax dodges By the night of the Sotheby’s auc- she doesn’t glimmer as much as an un- by the Texas militia and computer tion, any collector wealthy enough to touched coin in a collector’s vault. She is crimes. His sole brush with the big time buy his dreams wants the 1933 double a woman of secrets, a woman with the came after John Hinckley shot Presi- eagle. Now Redden will stoke that pas- power to turn men to crime. dent Ronald Reagan: Within hours sion in $100,000 increments. He starts at Like the Maltese Falcon, she repre- Freriks had gathered Hinckley’s $2.5 million. Bids flow in from the floor. sents all things to the men who have academic records from Texas Tech. “Two million eight on the right,” handled her in the past six years: wealth, The driver of the Cadillac got out Redden says. power, fame—often all three. And like and presented his ID to the agent. Most Americans have never han- that mythical object, she has corrupted Freriks groaned inwardly at the manu- B f 13Pica Left 8/00 ° —MONTH 00—DOUBLE EAGLE—P 68—PROOF 1—0/00/00—TK APR FEAT Double Eagle.lyt (R/O) 2/27/04 10:18 AM Page 4 Con man or jack-of-all-trades? Texan Jack Moore sparked the historic Secret Service sting. For agent Dave Freriks, the double eagle was a chance to cap a long career with a big bust. factured drama of the move. The man ordered chicken fajitas. Within an hour happened by chance: One day he noticed was Jack Moore, a retired truck driver Freriks’s ears were tired. Moore called a strange and beautiful gold coin on and an occasional source for an FBI him “friend” within minutes and clearly Groendyke’s desk—a 1908 Saint-Gau- agent Freriks knew. In the preceding relished being in the company of an dens double eagle. Groendyke, an Okla- days, Moore had been in contact with agent. He said he grew up poor. Said he homa trucking magnate, had bought it Freriks about a story involving a stolen was a retired truck driver for Groendyke to commemorate his father’s birth year. coin. Currency-related crimes were a Transport. Said he was a former Las Groendyke was a coin dealer’s case for the Secret Service, not the FBI, Vegas limo driver—for a debt collector. dream—a man with deep resources and so Freriks made the drive. Oh, and a gun dealer.
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