1882 Proof

The 1882 proof Liberty Head double eagle was struck in Philadelphia at a reported figure of fifty-nine pieces, placing the issue between the sixty-one proofs of 1881 and the ninety-two recorded for the proof-only 1883. What sets the 1882 apart is the ratio between proof and circulation output. The Philadelphia business strike was held to roughly five hundred seventy-one pieces, one of the lowest figures for any Liberty Head twenty intended for circulation, and the fifty-nine proofs represent close to ten percent of total Philadelphia output for the date. The catalog table flags the business strike as a Key Date, yet within the surviving census the proof is more readily acquired than its circulation counterpart, an inversion that ties the two issues together as a paired collector challenge.

Cataloged as JD-1 from a single working die pair, the 1882 is rated Low R.7 in the Sheldon system by John Dannreuther. Survival estimates range from David Akers at thirteen to fifteen coins to the Garrett-Guth and Bowers band of twenty to thirty, with a working census of twenty-two to twenty-eight tracking the middle ground. Confirmed examples display the deeply mirrored fields and frosted devices that distinguish a finished Philadelphia proof from a sharply struck business strike. Cameo designations have been issued in modest numbers, Deep and Ultra Cameo less freely. PCGS and NGC together have certified only a small population, weighted toward PR63 to PR65, with the finest tier a single PR66 Ultra Cameo at NGC bearing a CAC sticker.

Public auction activity is concentrated in the gem and near-gem tiers and remains thin overall. The Gnome at the Shore PR66 Ultra Cameo NGC, CAC, sold at Heritage Auctions on October 19, 2012 for $293,750, the benchmark for the upper census. A PR64 Cameo NGC realized $161,000 at Heritage's January 2011 FUN Signature sale, and lesser-graded coins have changed hands in the high five-figure range since. Bidding tends to converge whenever an 1882 proof appears, since collectors pursuing a complete Type 3 proof run cannot substitute another date and since builders of an 1882 date pair often acquire the proof first while sourcing a circulation strike. The issue anchors a cluster of low-mintage Philadelphia output that closes the Type 3 story across the broader Liberty Head Double Eagle series history.