Lot 2356
1931. NGC graded MS-66. A very frosty example. Two small marks on the hip and upper thigh serve to identify this specimen, the top one set on the diagonal, the other horizontal. Since virtually the entire population for 1931 falls into the Mint State grades, it is plain to see that this double eagle issue was never released for circulation. Instead, most of the 2,938,250 pieces originally made were melted in the Mint and today the 1931 is comparable in overall rarity to the widely respected 1932.
Among Saint-Gaudens pieces, the 1931 is considered to be one of the top seven rarest issues in the series, with precious few examples surviving the mass meltings of the Roosevelt Administration in the 1930s. Experts have speculated over the years which of these later dated issues is now the rarest, and exactly how they should be ranked. The population figures by the major services can sometimes be misleading as to exact rarity as the same coin may have been submitted to both services at different times, or even the same service multiple times thus causing the published figures to be skewed.
A lustrous Gem that has glinting gold color that shoots out beams of radiance in all directions plus the desired full strike. Indeed, on the heels of such active luster, we are pleased to describe a coin faithful to every detail from a full blow by the dies. Pop 5; none finer at NGC (PCGS # 9192) .
The year 1931 was one of worldwide tension and outright uncertainty. Britain went off the Gold Standard September 20, 1931. With the pound sterling vacillating wildly between $3.50 and $4 (it had been pegged at $4.86 for more than a century), Europeans, fearing further monetary devaluations, sought gold. A vast flood of gold, especially gold coins rather than bars, flowed out of U.S. government stockpiles in the autumn of 1931. Over $650 million in gold -- equivalent to thirty-two and one half million double eagles! -- left the U.S. in the first month after the devaluation of the pound, mostly to France.
At the same time, U.S. paper currency in circulation rose rapidly as confidence in banks deteriorated and the availability of financial services diminished with each bank failure and curtailment of service here at home. Circulation rose over $600 million, over 10%, in just three months.
On October 8, 1931, the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank admitted that its cheap money policy had failed to end the Depression. It raised the rediscount rate from 1 1/2% to 2 1/2%, and again on October 15, to 3 1/2%, in its efforts to stem the gold and capital exodus.
Estimated Value $80,000 - 90,000.
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