1861-S Paquet

San Francisco struck 19,250 double eagles using Anthony C. Paquet's revised reverse die in early January 1861, the full Paquet output of the West Coast facility. Mint Director James Ross Snowden had ordered the new dies suspended on January 5 after recognizing that the shallow rim would wear poorly. No transcontinental telegraph existed in January 1861, so the recall traveled overland from St. Joseph, Missouri by Pony Express and courier. It reached San Francisco on or about February 2, by which date all 19,250 pieces had already been struck and entered commerce. The coins could not be recovered. The Paquet output represents a small subset of the 768,000-piece total 1861-S production; the balance was struck with Longacre's standard reverse and is catalogued separately.

Approximately 125 to 150 problem-free examples are believed to survive. Combined PCGS and NGC raw totals run higher (109 graded across both services), but Doug Winter notes that NGC counts in particular are inflated by resubmissions, and only nine examples carry CAC approval. The grade distribution is heavily skewed: roughly ten to twenty pieces in VF, eighty-five to ninety-four in EF, twenty-nine to thirty-five in AU, and just two confirmed Mint State coins (a single PCGS MS62 from the D.L. Hansen collection and a single NGC MS61). Walter Breen's 1959 Numismatic Scrapbook article documented only six or seven known examples; over 100 surfaced from European hoards through the 1970s, accounting for most of the current population. Strike quality on Paquet pieces is generally weak, and original surfaces are uncommon given the heavy circulation most coins endured.

The 1861-S Paquet is the rarest regular-issue San Francisco Mint double eagle and ranks at approximately number 50 in Garrett and Guth's 100 Greatest U.S. Coins (4th edition). Pricing reflects that standing: VF examples run roughly $40,000 to $65,000, EF coins between $65,000 and $100,000, AU50 to AU58 from $85,000 to $250,000, and the MS61/MS62 pair functioning as condition rarities with no established market floor. A PCGS AU58+ realized $312,000 at Heritage's January 2023 FUN sale, the published auction record, and a PCGS AU53 CAC from the Fairmont Collection brought $96,000 at Stack's Bowers in June 2018. Diagnostics distinguishing the Paquet reverse from the Longacre include taller, narrower lettering, a near-oval O in OF, two shield border lines instead of one, sixteen horizontal shield lines instead of fourteen, and stars sitting separated from the rays rather than nested within them. Authentication via PCGS or NGC is mandatory at every grade, with CAC approval an important secondary check given the population's known cleaning issues. For the full Paquet recall story, see the Liberty Head Double Eagle series history.