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Sale 5
Lot 1719
The Classic Rarity 1856-O $20 Gold. Sharpness of Very Fine but cleaned and repaired. An extremely rare coin in any grade, with only 9 offerings in the past decade, two of them were this same coin! Perhaps two dozen are known at most, more likely half that figure. This coin has been lightly burnished, perhaps to remove scratches or just the usual quotient of bagmarks. Nevertheless, it has nice eye-appeal and is well struck for the date. Liberty's cheek and the surrounding fields show little evidence of handling, and what few marks are present are inconsequential on the obverse. The reverse has more ticks in the fields, a few shallow scrapes on the lower right reverse, one below the last A of AMERICA serves to identify this coin, and a small group under the first A.
One of the classic rarities of the double eagle series that is seldom offered, and always expensive. Mintage for the year spiraled down to a mere 2,250, few of which remain. Only a single coin was found in the Baltimore hoard, and no others are rumored to be "out there" hidden away. One of the highlights of this immense double eagle collection and worthy of a top-notch collection.
As noted in the recent Bass Collection on the 1856-O offered there, the date logotype is punched low and deep in the die, resulting in a "closed 5". The O mintmark is punched a bit high, close to the eagle's tail feathers, and the A in STATES is lightly patched (the reverse hub used to make dies had the central part of the A broken off at the left, on some dies this is repaired partially, others it shows about half the crossbar on the right side only), and there is a jagged die crack from between two dentils, through the extreme right side of the D of TWENTY D, just inside the curve of that letter, up to the ribbon above. This reverse die crack must be diagnostic to this variety, although not widely reported before the Harry Bass Sale. Breen notes that only two reverses were shipped in 1856 to New Orleans, apparently only one was used, and it cracked. This die crack is not seen on earlier or later coins in this collection from this mint, but it may well have been used prior to or after 1856.
Many collectors have learned to accept minor repairs on coins such as the careful smoothing done to this coin. After years of collecting and seeing countless coins, we know that many of the great rarities have been repaired at some time in the past. Today, collectors are more demanding, and such work is either not done or is done with extreme care as to not be detected by most collectors. The grading services have helped in this area by filtering out most of the offending repair jobs, by not grading such repaired coins or noting the repair on the grading insert. As we all know, you can't always find certain rare coins, they are by definition rare and not available. So, when a great rarity appears, like this 1856-O double eagle, collectors need to decide how much to discount the repair work to calculated their bids for an original, genuine 1856-O for their set. The lovely PCGS AU-53 coin offered in the Bass sale brought $105,800. This coin will bring less most likely, but with only dozen or so in the world, collector's don't exactly have a large choice, and it may be years before another 1856-O appears. As a numismatist, this coin would fit nicely in a circulated date collection, the surfaces have been carefully smoothed down, removing the offensive bagmarks which were no doubt deep and disturbing in the fields, and the face of Liberty looks like it was also smoothed a bit. Today, the appearance is of a lightly circulated coin, one without the barrage of bagmarks, the surfaces are therefore pleasing to the unaided eye, and a glass reveals minor hairlines and a few scattered marks still in the fields. Thus, the coin is a pleasing enough example, when one considers the rarity, history and availability of the date.
From Auction '85, July 26, 1985, lot 974; Superior Galleries Sale, February 4, 1992, lot 2944 and Superior Galleries Sale, February 2, 1993, lot 1487.
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| Realized $21,850 |
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