1862

Philadelphia struck only 92,133 double eagles in 1862, a collapse of roughly thirty-two times from the prior year's 2,976,453. The cause was monetary, not industrial. Northern banks suspended specie redemption on December 30, 1861, and the federal Legal Tender Act of February 1862 authorized the greenbacks that supplanted gold in eastern commerce. With every gold coin trading at premiums to paper and disappearing into private and bank hoards the moment it was struck, federal demand for new Philadelphia double eagles evaporated. San Francisco told the opposite story that year, with 854,173 pieces struck for a Pacific Coast economy that continued to settle in coin.

Strike quality runs slightly below the 1860 and 1861 issues. The hair curls below Liberty's ear and the tight curls above the brow typically lose individual strand definition, while the reverse strikes comparatively sharply. Border weakness in the four-to-seven o'clock range appears on a portion of survivors. Doug Winter calls the 1862-P the rarest Philadelphia double eagle struck between 1850 and 1880: total survivors run approximately 200 to 225 across all grades, with combined PCGS and NGC populations showing roughly twenty-three Mint State coins. Five carry CAC approval. A single NGC MS64 stands as finest known. The S.S. Republic recovery contributed eight examples (four in Mint State), and the Fairmont Hoard dispersal beginning in 2018 added at least eight more, several of strong original quality. Beyond those two sources, the date appears in no significant hoards or shipwrecks.

Pricing reflects the genuine rarity: VF coins run roughly $8,000 to $12,000, EF $13,000 to $17,000, AU50 to AU58 between $18,000 and $40,000, and Mint State examples crossing $40,000 at MS60 with MS63 sales pushing into six figures. The auction record stands at $174,000 for an NGC MS63+ Star CAC at Heritage's Long Beach Signature in February 2022. A PCGS MS62 from the Mississippi Collection brought $63,000 at Heritage in February 2025. Date alteration is the primary authentication concern: common Type I Philadelphia dates can be altered to read 1862, so any unslabbed example should be submitted to PCGS or NGC before purchase. Most known coins have been cleaned or dipped, making natural-surface examples a meaningful premium category. For broader Civil War-era production context, see the Liberty Head Double Eagle series history.