The Double Eagle

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The 1933 Double Eagle is the world’s most valuable coin. When it was sold to an anonymous buyer for $8 million in July 2002, it marked the end of an incredible seventy-year journey that saw it stolen from the U.S. Mint, owned by an Egyptian king, and then vanish for more than forty years, only to be seized by Treasury agents in a dramatic sting operation. The Double Eagle is now on display at the New York Federal Reserve.

All references to works of art, architecture, and artists are also accurate.

They were late.

They’d said quarter to and it was already five past. It made him uneasy to be standing out in the open for this long. If they weren’t there in the next five minutes he was leaving, a million dollars or not.

He patted his pocket nervously. It was still there, he could feel it through the black woolen material, its warm weight pressing against his thigh. It was still safe.

A teenage couple, arms interlinked, strolled toward him, snatching kisses every few steps in the dying light. Mid-embrace, the girl caught sight of him and broke away with an embarrassed shrug. Her fingers flew unconsciously to the small silver crucifix that hung around her neck.

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