1933 Indian Head Gold $10 Eagle

1933 wasn’t supposed to be a year of rare U.S. gold coinage. As many as 312,500 Indian Head $10 gold eagles were made at the Philadelphia mint that year, and 445,500 double eagles – with the 1933 double eagle now one of the rarest and most expensive coins of all time – were struck that year as well. So, why are 1933 gold coins so rare?

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt took the United States off the gold standard in 1933 during the absolute depths of the Great Depression, and subsequently millions upon millions of gold coins were melted. In fact, until 1975 it was illegal to own more than a certain number of gold coins that were not considered numismatically important.

As a result, virtually all 1933 U.S. gold coins were melted, leaving behind very few for the numismatic world today. At auction, a gem uncirculated 1933 Indian Head gold eagle sold for $718,750 in 2004, while in 2016 a Mint State 66 specimen sold for $881,250. For this reason, very few collectors even attempt to collect 1933 eagles, as even the lower-end specimens – on the rare occasion that they even come up on the market – cost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

It goes without saying that you should only buy certified specimens of 1933 gold coins. Consider any unslabbed 1933 U.S. gold coinage to be fake.