Without question, the 1933 eagle is the most famous of the 32 issues of this series. Although 312,500 were struck, the timing of their creation couldn't have been much worse for their survival. Immense numbers — over 4 million — 1932-dated Indian eagles were struck, and many of those still languished in Treasury vaults so demand was certainly not high especially as the American and worldwide Depression deepened. Those eagles struck by March 1933 were mostly held back in Treasury vaults, although a few were released during the March 1933 time period. The number released was apparently between 30 and 40 pieces which are known today. Likely the others were retained in vaults at the Philadelphia Mint and, together with millions of other coins, were melted in 1937. As the 1933 double eagles are for all practical purposes unobtainable, the rare 1933 eagle offers the only practical opportunity to acquire a gold coin of this date.

Noted Gold coin researcher David W. Akers estimates that 30 to 35 1933 Eagles are known; the late Walter Breen stated that ''only a few dozen were legally released.'' The Dannreuther-Garrett study lists only eight examples appearing at public auction over a 10-year period. Stack's has handled many examples, two since the 10-year study closed. The Mint State coin in the Dallas Bank Collection climbed to $149,500; our October 1996 Mint State piece brought $90,750. More recently, Stack's offered a near-Gem specimen in the January 2004 sale of the Michaels Collection that realized $172,500 and the Superb Gem graded NGC MS66 that climbed to $718,750. In any grade, the 1933 Indian Eagle is on the ''dream list'' of most serious collectors of American coins.

The example to the left was sold by Stack's Bowers Galleries in the August 2013 Chicago ANA Auction, where it realized $367,187.