1907 Liberty

Few American coins close a chapter as cleanly as this one. Struck during the opening months of 1907, the Philadelphia Liberty Head was the last circulating Double Eagle to bear James B. Longacre's Coronet portrait, a motif that had anchored the denomination since gold rushed out of California in 1849. Mint Director George E. Roberts halted production once Augustus Saint-Gaudens's redesign was ready for the presses that summer, and the changeover happened so abruptly that 1907 became the only calendar year in which both designs left the Philadelphia coiner's department. This coin therefore sits at a numismatic hinge point, the visual end of one era and the immediate cue for another.

The headline mintage of 1,451,864 looks generous against the prior year's narrow 69,690 strike at Philadelphia, and the surge reflected a deliberate push to satisfy export and Treasury reserves before tooling shifted to the new design. Survival is correspondingly strong: PCGS CoinFacts identifies the date as one of the most available issues in the entire Type III run, with thousands certified across mint-state grades and meaningful populations through MS65. Gem and finer pieces tighten quickly, however, since stacking abrasion in European bank vaults left most coins with chatter on Liberty's cheek and the eagle's shield. A separately accounted proof issue of 78 pieces, the final Liberty Head proof gold of any denomination, was reserved for collectors that year.

Saint-Gaudens's debut overshadowed the moment, and that contrast still shapes demand. The MCMVII High Relief and Ultra High Relief variants of 1907 capture headlines and seven-figure auction prices, while their Coronet predecessor remains attainable: well-struck mint-state examples regularly trade in the low four figures, with Heritage and Stack's Bowers crossing premium pieces like a PCGS MS66 graded specimen for around $13,000 to $17,000 at recent sales. For type collectors building a single representative of the design, this date offers the most dependable combination of availability, eye appeal, and historical weight in the closing Liberty Head Double Eagle series history.