1854-O $20 MS(PCGS#8912)

November 2019 Baltimore U.S. Coins Auction

Auctioneer

Stack's Bowers

Lot Number

3187

Grade

XF45

Price

240,000

Lot Description

Legendary 1854-O Double Eagle Rarest New Orleans Mint $20 1854-O Liberty Head Double Eagle. Winter-1, the only known dies. EF-45 (NGC). Handsome Choice EF quality for this fabled rarity among Type I Liberty Head double eagles. Warm olive undertones backlight dominant honey-orange patina. The strike is well executed with all major design elements retaining bold to sharp detail in the absence of all but light high point wear. A touch of glossiness to the texture and light hairlines are noted for accuracy, but there are few sizeable marks, and direct lighting readily calls forth faint remnants of the original mint finish. The New Orleans Mint was the only Southern mint to produce the double eagle and only did so in modest quantities using gold provided from the vast California gold fields. While the vast quantities of gold that flowed east from California provided the bullion for double eagle coinage at both the Philadelphia and New Orleans mints, the majority of this precious metal found its way to the Northeast rather than the Deep South. This trend began in 1850, the year that regular issue double eagle production commenced, and continued throughout the early New Orleans Mint double eagle series that ended in 1861. The limited supply of bullion reaching the New Orleans Mint became particularly acute after 1853, the commencement of coinage operations at the San Francisco Mint in 1854 allowing for much of the newly mined gold to be struck into double eagles before even leaving California. Perhaps not surprisingly, double eagle production at the New Orleans Mint reached its lowest point since the beginning of the series in 1854 with just 3,250 coins struck. Since there was no contemporary numismatic interest in this issue (or any other mintmarked U.S. gold coins, for that matter), the distribution of the 1854-O is the same as that of the 1850 to 1853 New Orleans Mint deliveries, the coins seeing extensive domestic circulation in the South and west of the Mississippi River beginning in the year of issue. Some worn examples were likely included in international transactions of later years, but with so few coins produced to begin with the numbers were understandably limited. Q. David Bowers, in his 2004 Guide Book of Double Eaglespublished by Whitman, accounts for only 25 to 30 survivors in all grades and describes the 1854-O as "one of the rarest of all double eagles." Douglas A. Winter (Gold Coins of the New Orleans Mint: 1839-1909, 2018 edition) takes a slightly more liberal view with an estimate of 30 to 40 coins extant, although he still ranks the 1854-O as the leading rarity among New Orleans Mint twenties. This is one of the few examples that we have offered in recent years, and it comes highly recommended for inclusion in an advanced double set or Southern gold cabinet. PCGS# 8912. NGC ID: 268T. Click here for certification details from NGC.