1861 $20 MS(PCGS#8932)

December 2025 Showcase Auction - The James A. Stack, Sr. Collection Part I

Auctioneer

Stack's Bowers

Lot Number

20030

Grade

MS62

Price

10,200

Lot Description

This lovely double eagle is smartly impressed with razor sharp to full strike detail throughout the design. Original surfaces are beautifully colored and display blushes of pinkish-rose iridescence on dominant orange-honey. Both sides are highly lustrous and sport a bold, hard, satin to softly frosted finish. An elegant piece, it will be equally well suited for a high quality type set or advanced Liberty Head double eagle collection.<p>With 2,976,453 pieces produced, the 1861 has the highest mintage of any pre-1904 double eagle, achieved to help fund the Union war effort on the outbreak of armed conflict with the South. Prior to the salvage of shipwreck treasures such as that of the S.S. <em>Central America</em>, this was the most available issue of the Type I Liberty Head design. A string of early Union defeats on the battlefield resulted in Northern banks suspending gold specie payments in December 1861. Hoarding began, an activity that probably accounts for most of the several hundred Mint State survivors of this issue. Given the popularity of the Liberty Head double eagle series with gold specialists, premium Uncirculated examples such as this are rare from a market availability standpoint. Indeed, we have offered very few 1861 twenties of similar quality and eye appeal over the years. This impressive James A. Stack, Sr. Collection coin is sure to result in spirited bidding.<p>Close inspection with a loupe reveals bold repunching at the base of the first digit 1 in the date. While Walter Breen's 1988 <em>Encyclopedia</em> carries an RPD variety of this issue with repunching to the digit 8 (Breen-7208), the author makes no mention of a variety with a repunched 1. This particular RPD is also not listed in either <em>An Insider's Guide to Collecting Type I Double Eagles</em> by Douglas Winter and Adam Crum (2002) or Q. David Bowers' <em>Guide Book of Double Eagle Gold Coin</em>s (2004).