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Sale 74
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Lot 1759
1857-S $20 Liberty. NGC graded MS-64 PQ CAC Approved. A lovely frosty coin. A hint of light gold tone. Dancing cartwheel luster careens off the satiny, matte-like surfaces of this attractively original Type 1 Double Eagle from the famed shipwreck. A blend of shades can be seen on both sides. The strike is altogether bold on the reverse as well as everywhere on the obverse including the stars, with the design elements as impressive looking as the scintillating luster.
An incredible coin if you have never seen one of these stunning 1857-S $20 gold pieces! The mint at San Francisco opened for business in 1854 in response to the flood of gold bullion issuing from California's Sierra Nevada mother lodes. From gold's discovery in 1848 until the mint opened, a number of private mints operated in this part of the state. Much of the issue from San Francisco went east through various means to satisfy the needs of commerce and for use as export. Those double eagles that stayed behind in California were used a currency since the state's residents shunned paper money of any kind. This is the main reason why double eagles are found circulated (often heavily so) and only rarely in fresh mint condition. The Mint State 64 offered here is quite naturally among the finest in existence. Perhaps only a few thousand frosty original coins exist out of the original mintage. These trace to the shipwreck of the passenger liner S. S. Central America, which floundered off the East Coast in a storm late in 1857.
On the history of the $20 denomination itself: one of the consequences of the immense discoveries of gold in California was an increase in gold bullion coming to the Philadelphia Mint for coinage. Authorities felt that large-scale domestic or international transactions payable in gold should be made in more compact form than eagles or smaller denominations. Accordingly, Rep. James Iver McKay (D.N.C.) was persuaded to introduce an amendment to his Gold Dollar bill, Feb. 1849, which would authorize coinage also of $20s, to be called Double Eagles. These were to weigh 516 grains = 33.436 grams, a little over a troy ounce each, and be roughly comparable in value to several Latin American denominations (PCGS # 8922) .
Estimated Value $8,000 - 8,500.
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| Realized $9,775 |
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