Some terrific $20 gold double eagles are standout lots in Heritage Auctions’ Dec. 12 to 15 U.S. Coins Signature auction.

Most exciting to many is one of around 50 to 60 known 1870-CC gold $20 double eagles. This one is graded Extremely Fine 45 by Numismatic Guaranty Co. and is among the nicer survivors from a mintage of just 3,789. It represents the first year of operation for the Carson City Mint in Nevada, established to strike silver and gold coins in response to the Comstock Lode discovery.

These first CC-Mint double eagles are considered “trophy coins” in today’s market, and with no known Mint State survivors, collectors must contend with lightly circulated examples. The one offered has a bright yellow-gold patina and Heritage writes, “many coins are distinctive for their own unique contact marks that can be used as pedigree markers,” while recognizing, “two small short marks in the field near star 13 and another on the top-back of Liberty’s cap.”

Rusty Goe advised collectors in 2020 that those seeking an example to add to their collection should recognize that few relatively attractive examples exist and that buyers must pay a hefty premium for those few handsome survivors. In April 2021, Heritage sold a similarly graded NGC example for $384,000, and a year later Stack’s Bowers Galleries sold one in this grade by Professional Coin Grading Service for $810,000. The more expensive one carried a green Certified Acceptance Corp. sticker, seeming to confirm Goe’s 2020 statement that collectors seeking a high-end example within the grade must be prepared to pay more than what is perhaps expected.

High-grade 1924-S $20

Another rarity of a different sort in the session is a 1924-S Saint-Gaudens gold $20 double eagle graded Mint State 65 by PCGS that is from a hearty mintage of 2,927,500 of which Heritage estimates that around 1,100 survive.

Nearly all of that San Francisco Mint production was melted before it was released, and in the mid-20th century collectors considered it among the rarest Saint-Gaudens double eagles. In the past few decades, additional examples have returned from bank holdings in Europe and South America, but most of these show bag marks and are not in “gem” grades.

Heritage cites the research of Roger Burdette who suggests that the few high-end examples of this date “likely came out of leftover pyx coins sent to Philadelphia (and distributed through the Philadelphia Mint Cashier), or from the San Francisco Mint Cashier directly in 1924.”

The offered coin is one of just 20 in this grade at NGC, bested by one in MS-65+ and another in MS-66 at that service. PCGS reports just seven in MS-65, with one in MS-65+ and a sole MS-67 that’s the finest-known for the issue. Heritage praises its eye appeal, bold strike and vibrant wheat-gold luster, and observes a few trivial marks before concluding, “Some die cracks and peripheral die erosion suggest an advanced die state.” Another similarly graded 1924-S double eagle sold for $69,000 at Stack’s Bowers’ Nov. 1, 2022, Rarities Night session.

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