Mar 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Karen Donovan, freelance journalist, New York

By: By Karen Donovan, freelance journalist, New York

It is the rarest and most valuable coin in the world, designed by a famed sculptor at the request of President Theodore Roosevelt in 1905. It should never have been minted. And, for decades, the U.S. government has fought to keep a surviving few out of private hands.

Joan Langbord, daughter of jeweler Israel “Izzy” Switt, knew all this when in 2003 — 13 years after her father's death — she claims she opened the contents of her dad's safe deposit box for the first time and found 10 gold 1933 Double Eagle $20 coins.

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