New York (AFP)

An American gold coin estimated between 10 and 15 million dollars will go on sale on June 8 by the auction house Sotheby's, which will also offer a stamp estimated in the same range.

This copy, which is part of the last series of gold coins, called "Double Eagle", minted by the United States Mint in 1933, could thus become the most expensive coin in the world, ahead of the silver dollar "Flowing Hair "(minted in 1794) sold for $ 10 million in 2013.

It was never put into circulation, the American President of the time Franklin Roosevelt, having begun the end of the convertibility of the American currency into gold.

A few copies nevertheless appeared on the collector's market, before being all seized by the American secret services, with the exception of a "Double Eagle" which had integrated the numismatic collection of King Farouk of Egypt.

The precious gilt-metal washer was bought in 1995 by a British collector who, after five years of legal battle, was allowed to legally resell it to its current owner, American designer Stuart Weitzman, in 2002, for $ 7.9 million. of dollars.

The popular shoemaker of many celebrities has assembled a unique collection with, in addition to the "Double Eagle", what many consider to be the rarest stamp in the world, the British Guiana One-Cent Magenta.

He had got his hands on this 1 cent stamp, printed in 1856, in 2014 for 9.4 million dollars, which remains to this day the record in the matter.

The British Guiana stamp was one of a series printed in disaster by the Postmaster General of British Guiana (now Guyana) following a supply disruption.

Stuart Weitzman also acquired, again in 2014, the most popular American stamp of philatelists, called "Inverted Jenny".

It is about a series of four stamps whose rarity comes from a printing error, the plane represented on each copy, a Curtis JN-4 biplane baptized "Jenny", appearing upside down.

The “Inverted Jenny” will also go on sale on June 8, with all proceeds going to charity, including the designer’s own foundation, The Weitzman Family Foundation.

The story of each of the three pieces "could almost become a film script," said Richard Austin, head of books and manuscripts at Christie's.

“What's interesting is that they all came from a mistake or a mishap,” he says.

"And that gives them value, because they're unique."

© 2021 AFP