"In 1905, at the height of the exuberant Gilded Age, President Theodore Roosevelt commissioned America's greatest sculptor, Augustus Saint-Gaudens to create what became America's most beautiful coin. In 1933, in the darkness of the Great Depression, Franklin Delano Roosevelt assumed wartime powers and recalled all gold and banned its private ownership." "But the United States Mint continued, quite legally, to strike nearly a half million 1933 double eagles that were never issued and were deemed illegal to own. In 1937, along with countless millions of other gold coins, they were melted down into faceless gold bars and sent to Fort Knox. The government thought they had destroyed them all - but they were wrong." "Illegal Tender, revealing information available for the first time, tells a tale of American history, liberally spiced with greed, intrigue, deception, and controversy as it follows the once secret odyssey of this fabulous golden object through the decades. With its cast of kings, presidents, government agents, shadowy dealers, and crooks, Illegal Tender will keep readers guessing about this incomparable disk of gold - the coin that shouldn't be and almost wasn't - until the very end."--BOOK JACKET.