King Farouk left Egypt on his yacht, and one of his gold coins later sold for $18.9 million

King Farouk abdicated on 26 July 1952 after the Free Officers' coup and sailed from Alexandria on the royal yacht Mahroussa. His infant son was named King Fuad II until Egypt became a republic in June 1953. The new government sold Farouk's collections of coins, stamps, Fabergé and glass at the Koubbeh Palace in 1954, with Sotheby's running the sale. One item was a 1933 Double Eagle, a US $20 gold coin. The US Mint never released that issue, and the coins were recalled and melted. Farouk had obtained an export licence for it in 1944 by mistake. The US asked Egypt to return it, and it was withdrawn from the sale and disappeared. In 1996 US agents seized it in a sting at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York. After a settlement it was sold in 2002 for $7,590,020, split between the US Treasury and the dealer. In June 2021 it sold at Sotheby's for $18,872,250. Farouk died in a Rome restaurant in 1965, aged 45.