Coin Collecting Novel-"The Double Eagle"

Fabled Coin Sparks Novel by Ex-Banker James Twining (Update1)

Oct. 6 (Bloomberg) -- James Twining, a descendent of the London family that started Twinings Tea in 1706, worked as an investment banker for UBS Warburg Ltd. before starting his Internet- based company GroupTrade in 1999.

The 32-year-old Oxford University graduate sold the company three years later and now has embarked on a third career -- as a crime novelist. He spoke with Robin Schatz last week at Bloomberg headquarters in New York about his first book, ``The Double Eagle'' (Harper Collins, 381 pages, $24.95).

In the novel, five rare gold coins have mysteriously vanished from Fort Knox in Kentucky. On the case is FBI agent Jennifer Browne, who is trying to get her stalled career back on track. If anyone can help, it's No. 1 suspect Tom Kirk, a former CIA agent turned international jewel thief, who just wants to leave his life of crime and run his dead father's art and antiquities business.

Same Stuff

Schatz: What's harder, being a businessman or a writer?

Twining: The thing that's occurred to me most is how similar they are. When I was pitching for venture-capital funding, it was a very similar process that I went through when I was trying to find a publisher.

You show up with an idea and have to show lots of passion and commitment; you get a lot of turndowns. My experience in business and my experience as an entrepreneur actually gave me the resolve and strength and self-belief to carry on.

Schatz: The book is about the high-stakes world of auctions, art and collectibles. Is this is a world that you know very well personally?

Twining: It's a world that I've always been very passionate about. I've always loved art, but I've also liked art theft as well. And it's almost like the flip side of the coin that these objects of incredible beauty and incredible value bring out sometimes the worst aspects of human character. They bring out greed. They bring out jealousy. They bring out murder and theft. And I think it was that duality of art which has always fascinated me.

Schatz: Tell us about the Double Eagle. How did you come upon the history of this rare coin, and how did you decide to build your story around it?

Most Expensive Coin

Twining: The starting point was the central character Tom Kirk, the art thief who, when I was a kid, was this sort of fantasy character that I hoped one day to maybe become. And instead I went and worked in finance, where a lot of people say all the greatest thieves are anyway, but that's another story.

And then I just came across this story of the Double Eagle when it was sold in 2002. It sold for $7.6 million, making it the most expensive coin ever sold. And it just seemed to me an incredible story.

Schatz: What happened?

Twining: There were these coins, these Double Eagles minted in 1933, melted down on the orders of FDR. But prior to melting 10 coins survived, nine of which were subsequently recovered by the Secret Service and one of which found its way into the private coin collection of King Farouk of Egypt.

That same coin then vanished for 40 years and was the subject of rumor and intrigue until eventually it turned up here in New York and was seized by Treasury agents. The guy who owned it was thrown into prison. He sued, they countersued, and eventually led to a settlement whereby the coin was auctioned and the proceeds split.

Still Time

Schatz: Is there a little bit of James Twining in Tom Kirk?

Twining: I was brought up in Paris and Tom has spent some time in Paris. I like watches and backgammon, and so does Tom Kirk. But I think that's pretty much where it ends. I've never been a CIA agent and I've never broken into a museum, but I guess I'm still young. Maybe there's still time.

Schatz: Everybody who drinks tea knows the Twinings name. Was your family involved in the tea business?

Twining: The business itself was sold in the 1950s to a company called Associated British Foods. Unfortunately I didn't inherit the fortune or I'd be sitting on a beach probably.

Schatz: Or buying lots of Faberge eggs.

Twining: Absolutely. Yes.

Twining: I've just handed in the second Tom Kirk adventure. It's called ``The Black Sun.'' I'm very excited about it and the publishers are, too.

SS Knights

Schatz: What's this one about?

Twining: It's about a treasure hidden at the end of the Second World War by a secret group of SS Knights. And it's a treasure that Tom's father spent his last days before he died trying to find.

Schatz: I've seen something of your Oxford background in your literary quotes about money sprinkled through the book. Do you have a favorite one?

Twining: Well, it's probably the one from King Lear by Shakespeare, ``Plate sin with gold and the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks; Arm it with rags, a pigmy's straw doth pierce it.'' It seems to say a lot to me about the power of money and the corrupting influence of gold on men. So, I quite like that one.