The $20 Coin America Tried to Destroy

In 1933, the U.S. government ordered every gold coin of that year destroyed. One survived — and sold in 2021 for $18,872,250. This is the story of that coin, and of how a piece of paper took over the world: the 1933 gold seizure, the lawyer who asked for his own gold back and got indicted, the Bretton Woods deal, the night Nixon closed the gold window, the secret Saudi oil deal, a Secret Service sting at the Waldorf-Astoria — and why central banks are buying gold again today. Paper or gold — which would you bet on? Tell me in the comments. CHAPTERS 0:00 The most expensive coin in history 1:10 1933: hand over your gold 2:33 Gold Indictment No. 1 4:23 A king, a spy and Bretton Woods 6:25 The gold drain 7:41 The night the dollar left gold 8:59 The secret oil deal 9:53 The coin comes back 10:42 Money as a weapon 11:31 Ten coins in Fort Knox SOURCES Executive Order 6102 (1933) and Gold Reserve Act (1934) — U.S. National Archives 1933 double eagle: history, 2002 and 2021 sales, Langbord case — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1933_do... Saudi holdings of U.S. Treasuries disclosed in 2016 — Bloomberg / Gulf News, May 2016 Fort Knox: 1974 visit, $42.22 book value — Axios, Feb 20, 2025 Gold overtakes the euro as a reserve asset — European Central Bank, June 2025 Milton Friedman & Anna Schwartz, A Monetary History of the United States CREDITS Illustrations and music: original, created for Paper & Gold. Archival photos and film: U.S. National Archives, Library of Congress, U.S. Mint, Universal Newsreel, Smithsonian National Numismatic Collection, U.S. Capitol, IMF — public domain. "Mount Washington Hotel Bretton Woods October 2021" — King of Hearts, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons) "Waldorf-Astoria, New York City, 2006" — Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.5 "Gold bullion bars" — Stevebidmead, CC0 "U.S. Bullion Depository" — Cliff, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons) #money #gold #dollar #history #economics