1896-S

San Francisco struck more than 1.4 million double eagles in 1896, slotting this Type 3 issue between the slimmer 1895-S delivery of 1,143,500 and the 1897-S figure of 1,470,250 that followed. The "S" mintmark sat below the eagle's tail feathers on the reverse, paired with James B. Longacre's Liberty obverse and the heraldic shield reverse that had defined the series since the Type 3 transition in 1877. Like most West Coast deliveries from this period, the issue circulated heavily in Pacific commerce and saw extensive shipment abroad as bullion settlement against trade imbalances, which explains why a substantial population eventually returned to U.S. dealers from European bank vaults during the mid-twentieth century.

Strike quality on this date is generally above average for an SF business issue, with thick mint frost across both faces and Liberty's coronet typically rendering crisply. The recurring problem is surface preservation: bag handling left nearly every survivor with abrasions across Liberty's cheek and the eagle's breast, and a small subset shows mint-made copper spotting from imperfectly mixed alloy. PCGS has certified the issue widely through MS62 and MS63, with MS64 still attainable for patient buyers. Gems are a different conversation: MS65 examples are genuinely scarce, and anything finer becomes a condition rarity that commands aggressive premiums when it surfaces at auction. Type 3 collectors building grade-set runs treat it as a candidate date rather than an automatic fill.

One useful market datapoint: a CAC-stickered MS-64+ example tracked through PCGS Auction Prices documents how meaningful the half-grade jump becomes once eye appeal is verified by the green bean. Heritage and Stack's Bowers have moved gem-grade pieces with regularity in major sessions, with MS65 results historically clustering in the low five figures depending on luster and freedom from copper spots. Compared with the Philadelphia 1896, itself a low-mintage 792,500 issue that punches above its weight in MS, this San Francisco delivery is the affordable survivor of the year pair, and remains a logical entry point for collectors approaching the late-Type 3 chapter of the Liberty Head Double Eagle series history.