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Liberty Head Gold $20 Double Eagles (Coronet)

Published August 3, 2025

U.S. Gold Coins

Coin Design History

Liberty Head Gold Double Eagles (1849–1907)

Collectors Key Editorial  •  Gold Series
Author NameChris D.Date PublishedMarch 25, 2026 DenominationDouble Eagle ($20 Gold) Years Issued1849 (unique presentation piece); commerce 1850–1907 DesignerJames Barton Longacre Composition90% gold, 10% copper Weight33.436 grams Diameter34 mm EdgeReeded TypesType I: No Motto, TWENTY D. (1849–1866); Type II: With Motto, TWENTY D. (1866–1876); Type III: With Motto, TWENTY DOLLARS (1877–1907) MintsPhiladelphia (no mark); New Orleans (O); San Francisco (S, 1854–); Carson City (CC, 1870–1893); Denver (D, 1906–1907) Date-and-Mint CombinationsApproximately 150

Congress Authorized the Double Eagle in Response to the California Gold Rush, and Banks Used It to Move Large Sums at Home and Abroad

The Act of March 3, 1849, signed by President James K. Polk on the final day of his administration, authorized the gold dollar and the double eagle simultaneously, both as instruments for converting the massive influx of California placer gold into federal coinage. The denomination had no precedent in federal law; the Mint Act of 1792 had specified the eagle as the largest gold coin. Numismatist David Lange described the double eagle as "a banker's coin intended to simplify transfers of large sums between financial institutions and between nations." Only one 1849 double eagle survives, a presentation piece in the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian Institution. Commercial production began with 1850-dated coins struck at Philadelphia and New Orleans. Longacre placed Liberty facing left on the obverse, her hair gathered in a bun and wearing a coronet inscribed LIBERTY, flanked by thirteen stars with the date below; the reverse depicts a heraldic eagle surrounded by the inscription UNITED STATES OF AMERICA above and the denomination below. Longacre's initials JBL appear on the truncation of the bust; both the double eagle and the simultaneously authorized 1849 gold dollar bore his initial on the truncation, making them the first federal coins to carry the designer's initial. The denomination expression on the reverse read TWENTY D. from 1849 through 1876, with the abbreviation giving way to the fully spelled TWENTY DOLLARS when the third type was introduced in 1877.1

The 1861 Paquet Reverse Was Recalled Within Days at Philadelphia but 19,250 Reached Commerce at San Francisco Before the Stop Order Arrived

IN GOD WE TRUST was added to the double eagle in 1866, prompted by the same wartime religious sentiment that had placed it on the two-cent piece in 1864. The motto appeared within the ring of stars above the eagle beginning with 1866 production, dividing the series into the No Motto Type I and the With Motto types that followed. A separate design event five years earlier produced one of the most consequential rarities in the series. In 1860, Assistant Engraver Anthony C. Paquet revised the reverse with taller, narrower letters; production of 1861-dated coins began at both Philadelphia and San Francisco before the Mint discovered that the revised reverse left the rim too shallow to protect the design from abrasion. Philadelphia halted immediately; only two business strike examples of the 1861 Philadelphia Paquet Reverse are known to have survived the recall. The stop-production order did not reach the San Francisco Mint in time, and 19,250 1861-S Paquet Reverse double eagles entered circulation before the order arrived and the dies were changed. The two 1861 Paquet issues occupy entirely different collecting tiers: the finer of the two known 1861 Philadelphia Paquet Reverse coins brought $7.2 million at Heritage's August 2021 auction, while the 1861-S can be found by any collector prepared to spend at the level the series demands. The series ran from five mints over 57 years. Philadelphia, New Orleans (from 1850 in this denomination), and San Francisco (from 1854) produced the Type I coins; Carson City joined with the With Motto type in 1870 and continued through 1893; Denver struck the Liberty Head design only in 1906 and 1907 before the Saint-Gaudens design replaced Longacre's portrait.2

The 1870-CC is the first Carson City double eagle and the denomination's landmark rarity. From a mintage of 3,789 pieces, Rusty Goe, in his 2020 specialist study, estimates 55 to 65 survive in all grades, with no examples known in Mint State. Most saw sustained circulation in the commerce of the Nevada silver economy and carry marks accordingly. The finest known example, graded About Uncirculated 55 by PCGS, is described as the sole prooflike survivor of the issue; it had been off the market since its purchase from a Stack's auction in January 1986 for $23,101 (catalogued then as probably the finest known specimen) and did not return to public auction for nearly 39 years. Stack's Bowers Galleries sold the coin from the Bernard Richards Collection in November 2024 for $1,440,000, a record for an 1870-CC double eagle in PCGS About Uncirculated 55. Three Philadelphia issues were struck only in Proof: 1883, with 92 Proofs, 1884, with 71 Proofs, and 1887, with 121 Proofs; business strikes of 1883 and 1884 came from San Francisco and Carson City, and those of 1887 only from San Francisco. The low-mintage New Orleans issues of 1854-O (3,250 struck) and 1856-O (2,250 struck) are among the rarest in the entire denomination, both commanding six figures in the lowest grades.

Building the Set

A three-type set requires one coin of each major reverse type. For Type I, the most common dates are the 1861 Philadelphia issue with the regular reverse and the high-mintage Philadelphia issues of the early 1850s, though the recovery of the SS Central America beginning in 1988 and the subsequent release of approximately 5,400 pristine 1857-S double eagles to the market starting in 2000 permanently changed what is available to a Type I collector in upper grades. Gem (Mint State 65 or finer) 1857-S examples from the wreck are now the most accessible Gem Type I coins in private hands. For Type II, the 1873 Open 3 and the 1876 Philadelphia dates are the most available in circulated and lower Mint State grades. For Type III, the 1900 through 1904 Philadelphia and San Francisco dates are the most common in all grades, except the 1902 Philadelphia issue, whose 31,140 business strikes are the fewest of any 20th-century Liberty Head double eagle. A complete date-and-mint set spanning all three types and approximately 150 combinations is among the most demanding projects in the gold series: the 1854-O, 1856-O and 1870-CC run into six figures even in circulated grades, the 1861-S Paquet does so in the upper About Uncirculated grades, the three Proof-only issues add further expense, and dozens more require mid-five figures for a collector-quality circulated example. The primary specialist reference is Jeff Garrett and Ron Guth's Encyclopedia of U.S. Gold Coins, 1795-1933 (2nd edition, Whitman Publishing, 2008).3

Notes

  1. The Act of March 3, 1849, signed by President James K. Polk, authorizing the gold dollar and double eagle; the 1792 Mint Act's eagle as the largest gold coin; the single surviving 1849 double eagle in the National Numismatic Collection; commercial production from 1850 at Philadelphia and New Orleans; Longacre's obverse (Liberty facing left, hair in a bun, coronet inscribed LIBERTY, thirteen stars, date below) and heraldic eagle reverse; the initials JBL on the truncation, the double eagle and gold dollar being the first federal coins to bear the designer's initials; the denomination reading TWENTY D. through 1876 and TWENTY DOLLARS from 1877 are from Garrett, Jeff, and Ron Guth, Encyclopedia of U.S. Gold Coins, 1795-1933, 2nd ed. (Atlanta: Whitman Publishing, 2008), and Breen, Walter, Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins (New York: F.C.I. Press/Doubleday, 1988). The quotation is from Lange, David W., History of the United States Mint and Its Coinage (Atlanta: Whitman Publishing, 2006), p. 75.
  2. IN GOD WE TRUST added to the double eagle in 1866, placed within the ring of stars above the eagle; the three reverse types (No Motto 1849-1866; With Motto TWENTY D. 1866-1876; With Motto TWENTY DOLLARS 1877-1907); Anthony C. Paquet revising the reverse in 1860 with taller, narrower letters; production beginning at Philadelphia and San Francisco in 1861 before the rim deficiency was discovered; Philadelphia halting immediately with only two survivors; 19,250 1861-S Paquet Reverse double eagles struck before the stop order arrived; the five-mint production history (Philadelphia, New Orleans from 1850, San Francisco from 1854, Carson City 1870-1893, Denver 1906-1907) are from Garrett and Guth (2008) and Breen (1988). The $7.2 million sale of the finer 1861 Philadelphia Paquet (PCGS MS67 CAC, Brand-Farouk-Norweb) is from Heritage Auctions, August 2021 ANA World's Fair of Money sale, lot 3471.
  3. The 1870-CC as the first Carson City double eagle; mintage of 3,789; Goe's estimate of 55-65 survivors in all grades with no Mint State examples; most examples showing sustained circulation; the finest known (PCGS About Uncirculated 55) described as the sole prooflike survivor and off the market since the Stack's January 1986 Carter sale; Stack's Bowers Galleries, November 2024, lot 3198, 1870-CC Liberty Head Double Eagle, PCGS About Uncirculated 55, $1,440,000, Bernard Richards Collection, a record for the grade, from the Stack's Bowers Galleries November 2024 Rarities Night press release; the Philadelphia Proof-only dates (1883, 92 Proofs; 1884, 71; 1887, 121); the 1854-O at 3,250 struck and 1856-O at 2,250 struck; the 1902 Philadelphia business-strike mintage of 31,140, the lowest of any 20th-century Liberty Head double eagle; the SS Central America's recovery beginning 1988 and release of approximately 5,400 1857-S double eagles to market from 2000; the type-date availability and date-and-mint set statements are from Garrett and Guth (2008); Goe, Rusty, The Confident Carson City Coin Collector (Reno: Southgate Coins and Collectibles, 2020); and the Stack's Bowers Galleries November 2024 Rarities Night press release.

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