1871-S

San Francisco struck 928,000 Liberty double eagles in 1871, a Type 2 emission carrying the With Motto reverse and the spelled-out "TWENTY D." denomination Longacre had reworked in 1866. The mint's Pacific-coast role drove most of these pieces straight into commercial circulation, where mercantile shipments and trans-Pacific bullion exchanges absorbed them rapidly. Carson City had begun coining its own twenties the prior year, but the Nevada branch's output remained a small fraction of San Francisco's capacity, and the 1871-S accounts for the bulk of that calendar year's western gold. Adjacent SF mintages frame the sequence: 982,000 for 1870-S, 928,000 here, and 780,000 for 1872-S, a three-year stretch defined by heavy production and minimal saver behavior.

The high-mintage, low-Mint-State-survival paradox typical of SF Type 2 dates governs this issue's modern population structure. Doug Winter's date-by-date analysis records only four pieces certified MS63 across the major services (three at NGC, one at PCGS) and a single MS64 at each of PCGS and NGC, with no recorded examples finer. AU survivors are more available but rarely original; bag friction, scuffs in the open obverse fields, and dipped surfaces dominate certified inventory. The dies themselves were typically well-employed for the era, and 1871-S coins occasionally surface with semi-prooflike reflectivity that gives the issue stronger eye appeal than several earlier S-mint Type 2 emissions, including the 1869-S and 1870-S.

Auction performance reflects the steepness of the grading curve above AU. Heritage's August 22, 2021 ANA Signature realized $180,000 for an MS64 PCGS example, a result that sits well above the date's older benchmarks (an MS64 NGC coin brought $32,200 in Heritage's 1998 ANA sale, Lot 7856). The Saddle Ridge Hoard, recovered in Northern California in 2013, did include a small contingent of 1871-S double eagles, several of which were certified in the XF-AU range and entered the market with hoard pedigree designations attached to PCGS holders. Counterfeit risk for this date centers on cast and pressed copies of common AU survivors rather than altered-date deceptions, since the original mintage figure removes any motive to manufacture an "S" from another mintmark. For deeper context on the broader series, see our Liberty Head Double Eagle series history.