People in the U.S. were hoarding gold. It was undermining the nation's financial system. And FDR, almost as soon as he became president, within a couple of days, took us, by executive order, off the gold standard.

Some of the reasons why people bought gold don't hold true anymore. Rising energy costs, inflation, the double deficit in the U.S. and geopolitical tension. None of them seem to be much of a problem.

Like a traveler encountering a succession of mountain ranges we found the scope of our project seeming to expand with every step we took.

The more one looks at this and studies these extraordinary objects, the more one begins to hear the sounds of battle. This is about as close as one can get to that extraordinary moment in world history when the American Revolution was taking place. It was accomplished with heroism and a tremendous amount of bloodshed. And these flags flew above these armies. I've called them the last great relics of the American Revolution in private hands, and no one has disputed that.

The irony of ironies is, in order to make this coin totally legal and totally monetized, the buyer will have to give, in addition to millions of dollars it costs to buy it, $20 -- a $20 bill -- to go back to the Treasury.

Coins are not money until it's monetized -- until the Treasury says they're money. They weren't legal to spend. It was simply a bright gold round disc. They were by order of the Treasury in 1937, melted down.