1866-S Motto

San Francisco's 1866-S With Motto eagle marks the moment the Pacific branch transitioned to the new Type 2 reverse, with the scrolled "IN GOD WE TRUST" motto added above the eagle following the Act of March 3, 1865. Production split the year in two: dies for the No Motto reverse were used during the first portion of 1866, and only after the new With Motto working dies arrived from Philadelphia (no earlier than March of that year) did the branch shift to the design that would carry the series through 1907. The result is a small second-half-of-year coinage of roughly 11,500 pieces, making this the inaugural With Motto eagle from San Francisco and a foundational date for any Type 2 set.

Survivors are concentrated in well-circulated grades, with most certified examples falling between Very Fine and About Uncirculated. Authentication should begin with the reverse design itself: the presence of the motto on a scroll above the eagle confirms the With Motto variant and separates it instantly from its 1866-S No Motto counterpart, which uses the older Type 1 reverse. Verify the "S" mintmark is original to the die rather than added, particularly on lower-grade pieces where the surrounding field has worn smooth. Specifications should test to 16.718 grams with a specific gravity near 17.2 for the .900 fine alloy; deviations on either count warrant a die-marker review against published references. Genuine examples typically show the soft, granular luster characteristic of early San Francisco gold rather than the brighter cartwheel of later Carson City or Philadelphia issues.

Doug Winter places the date among the rarer San Francisco eagles of the post-Civil War era, with mint state survivors essentially unobtainable and even mid-grade circulated coins appearing infrequently at major sales. A PCGS AU53 example brought $15,600 at Heritage in February 2020, a useful benchmark for problem-free coins in the upper circulated range. Collectors building either a complete With Motto type set or a date-by-date Liberty Head eagle run will find this issue indispensable, and its dual significance as both a transitional issue and a genuinely scarce branch-mint date supports its premium over more available 1870s San Francisco eagles. For more on the broader run, see the Liberty Head Eagle series history.