Lot 1805
1886 $20 Gold PCGS Graded AU 53 Rarity. PCGS graded AU-53. Mintages plunged for double eagles in 1886 to a single bag of 1,000 pieces. Breen estimated that only 8 to 10 survived of the business strikes, this seems a bit conservative as auction appearances and the various population reports would today indicate a surviving population of around 20 coins. Of those, PCGS reports only 5 graded as AU 53, while 5 coins have been graded higher. Obviously, most did not survive circulation, but were melted and recoined or somehow lost.
Liberty's cheek is smooth, with only a few bagmarks, and the surrounding fields are also far better than normally encountered for this grade. Working on a date set of these important double eagles is a challenging task, and the coins offered in this extensive sale won't be available anytime again soon. Another opportunity for the specialist to put away one of the "stoppers" or key dates of the series in choice, lightly circulated condition.
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| Realized $18,400 |
