1920-S $20 MS(PCGS#9171)

The January 2013 Americana Sale

拍卖行

Stack's Bowers

批号

13351

等级

MS63

价格

603,985

详细说明

1920-S Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle. MS-63 (PCGS). CAC. Lustrous and pleasing were this&nbsp;a common date issue, as the strike is sharper than often seen and the surfaces are free of all but minor evidence of bag handling. The peripheral tiny stars are sharp too, and the dress folds on Liberty show strong definition, as do the eagle's tiny feathers on his chest, neck and wings. No heavy copper specks are present, and the luster is bright, fresh and attractive. For future identification there is a shallow scuff right at the center of the upright of the L of LIBERTY. With so few known of this date and mint, there are always many Saint-Gaudens collectors seeking an example.<br /> <br /> As so commonly seen in the numismatic history of our country, the original mintages are at best general guides to finding examples today. The student of this immensely popular series soon learns the number struck has little to do with the number that survived. Similar to the gold coinage of the&nbsp;1820s and 1830s, or the silver coinage of the early 1850s, disruptions in the legislated balance of the silver to gold ratio caused wholesale melting of the available coins--when a profit was to be had. A similar case transpired in the 1930s, where country after country decided to go off the gold coin standard for their circulating money. In America the coinage of gold stopped during 1933, and all the available gold coins were called back to be under government control. Much of the gold coinage struck in this period had never left the control of the government, and many bags of double eagles were simply&nbsp; returned to the appropriate agency. Most of the double eagles struck between 1912 and 1933 were melted, with lower mintage dates suffering along with common, high mintage dates. Remarkably, a significant number of bags of double eagles had been sent overseas, under normal banking agreements prior to this change of heart in 1933, and while these were generally coins shipped from the east