The coin that I would like to talk about today is the GOLD double eagle. There are three types of this coin. The first type was from 1850-1866. These coins were struck around the time of the great California gold rush. The Type 1 (or No Motto) double eagles were struck at the Philadelphia Mint every year from 1850 through 1865, at New Orleans from 1850 through 1861, and at San Francisco from 1854 through 1866. The O or S mintmark is found below the eagle’s tail. Average mintages were several hundred thousand, but ranged up to just under three million for the 1861 issue. The San Francisco coins of 1866 were the last of the design, and were also issued as part of the Type 2 series, with the new motto IN GOD WE TRUST. There are many rare dates and many proof type coins. When grading double eagles, wear is first noticeable on the locks over Liberty’s ear and on the eagle’s head and neck. Bag marks are usually a problem with these large, soft gold coins. They generally picked up many bag, reeding and contact marks even before entering circulation. The lack of high quality and, in many cases, any specimens of some dates stops most from collecting this series by date and mintmark. It is more commonly sought as a “type” coin.
The type 2 series is from 1866-1976. In 1866, when the second design for the double eagle was introduced, America was a vastly different country. The Compromise of 1850 lay as dead as the million young men that had given their lives on battlefields throughout the South. Reconstruction was proving to be a heavy burden on the southern states and also a political quagmire for President Andrew Johnson and the Radical Congress. However, no one in Washington could argue against the idea that the country needed divine direction to heal its recent scars. To that end, the Mint Act of 1865 included a provision that the motto IN GOD WE TRUST be placed on the nation’s coins.
The idea that a religious motto should be added to U.S. coinage originated in 1861 when Reverend M.R Watkinson of Ridleyville, Pennsylvania—in a letter to Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase—urged that coins should carry a “recognition of the Almighty God in some form.” The Reverend suggested a design with a strong God and Country theme, and concluded his letter by stating, “This would relieve us from the ignominy of heathenism. From my heart I have felt our national shame in disowning God as not the least of our present national disasters.” Obviously agreeing with Watkinson, Chase instructed Mint Director James Pollock to prepare a device for coinage with such a motto in the “fewest and tersest words possible.” Over the next several years various mottoes were tried on base metal patterns including GOD AND OUR COUNTRY, GOD OUR TRUST, and finally IN GOD WE TRUST. Grading these coins have the same guidelines as the type 1 series.
Type 3 was from 1877-1907. The Type 3 Liberty double eagle was by far the largest mintage of the three types with 64,137,477 business strikes and 2,426 proofs minted from 1877 through 1907. Five facilities minted the coin during its thirty-one-year run: Philadelphia (no mintmark) and San Francisco (S) were the major producers, with Carson City (CC) augmenting mintage until 1893, New Orleans (O) striking coins only in 1879, and Denver (D) coming aboard for the last two years of 1906 and 1907. Mintmarks can be found on the reverse below the eagle. The 1904 Philadelphia mintage alone dwarfed all others with over 6.25 million coins produced. Collectors looking for a gem example of this design for a type set will invariably find this date. Unfortunately, counterfeits of this and other dates abound. Many Lebanese counterfeits were originally sold in the Middle East and Europe as gold bullion in a recognizable form (double eagles contain almost an ounce of pure gold). Most of these bogus coins are easily identified by an expert, but are made well enough to deceive a novice collector. At West Town Jewelry & Loan we are experts in pricing and grading gold coins. We are collectors ourselves and we are passionate about coins. Please stop by for a free evaluation of your collection.