World's rarest coin goes for auction

A €23 gold piece could become the world's most valuable coin when it is sold at auction this year.

The unique 1933 "double eagle" is set to fetch up to€6.87m at a single lot sale at Sotheby's, New York, in July.

The coin never went into circulation as President Franklin Roosevelt ordered all gold currency to be destroyed in 1933 because it was hoarded in the Great Depression.

This double eagle - the only one from 1933 to survive - disappeared after its withdrawal from a 1954 sale at the US Treasury's request, reports claim.

It was then seized in 1996 from a British dealer who tried to sell it to secret agents.

David Redden of Sotheby's said it is "the Holy Grail of the coin collecting world".