NEW YORK: A 1933 US gold coin that was never issued after Franklin D. Roosevelt removed America from the gold standard sold for a record $18.87 million at a Sotheby's auction in New York Tuesday.

The auction house described the 1933 Double Eagle, the last US gold coin made and intended for circulation, as "one of the most coveted coins in the world" and it didn't disappoint.

The $20 coin, designed by the American sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, sailed past its pre-sale estimate price of between $10 million and $15 million.

It also smashed the record for the most expensive coin in the world, set by a 1794 Flowing Hair silver dollar that sold for $10 million in 2013.

The Double Eagle has an image of Lady Liberty on one side and an American eagle on the other. The 1933 Double Eagles were the last American gold coins intended for circulation by the United States Mint but were never legally issued for use.

That year, President Roosevelt removed the United States from the gold standard in an effort to lift America's battered economy out of the Great Depression.