The toughest one was the 1933 Double Eagle. Everyone tells you it’s locked away in vaults and the U.S. Mint keeps it safe, but I dug into the auction records of the 1930s, talked to a few out-of‑state collectors who had “one‑of‑a‑kind” pieces in their basements, and then hit a little pawn shop in Kansas that had an old “private sale” ticket in a drawer. They were willing to trade a handful of their own blanks for a copy of the original mint papers. I flipped the coin, showed the papers, and walked out with a half‑cent piece in my hand, and a story that no travel guide will ever cover. It was a mix of old money, old men, and a lot of off‑the‑grid patience.