1871 $20 MS(PCGS#8960)

Summer 2025 Global Showcase Auction U.S. Coins

Commissaire-priseur

Stack's Bowers

Numéro du lot

2033

Grade

MS64

Prix

75 000

Description du lot

Here is another highly significant coin that is the rule, not the exception, for this amazing collection. The portrait is beautifully struck with excellent details, the stars are sharp including the centers, and the dentils are well defined. The reverse is needle sharp. Grade is one thing but aesthetic appeal can be entirely another, especially with regard to large, heavy double eagles. The present piece is richly lustrous and warm golden-rose in color with remarkably few trivial marks scattered about. It is certainly one of the very finest we have ever seen - quite a statement considering that we have probably handled more rare gold coins than any other auction firm in history.<p>The mintage for this issue was tiny for the era with just 80,120 double eagles produced for commercial use. This is the lowest Philadelphia Mint production tally of any date after 1859 and prior to 1881. Many lightly worn examples of this issue were exported in later banking transactions, only to return to America in the mid to late 20th century, though this repatriation brought back very few high grade Uncirculated specimens. David Akers noted in his 1982 double eagle book that only five Uncirculated 1871 $20s had been identified from the 443 auction catalogs that he researched over a 60-year span, with some of the same coins reappearing at later auctions. He personally had ever seen only three Uncirculated 1871 coins. Q. David Bowers' estimates, published by Whitman in 2004 and in continual revision, are based on observations, previous listings, and the like, not on population reports. He suggests just 8 to a dozen or so examples of this issue qualify as Mint State, a range we would increase to 10 to 20 in the current market, but still with most around the MS-60 end of the grading scale and with many surface marks. The reality is that the 1871 double eagle offered here is a very rare coin - an extraordinary condition rarity tied for CC#1 for the issue with only three other grading events in PCGS and NGC MS-64.