$20 SAINT-GAUDENS DOUBLE EAGLE
1907-1933
What's the most aesthetically and artistically beautiful United States gold coin ever produced by the U.S. Mint? Whenever that question arises, one of the most frequent, if not the most frequent, answers will surely be the gold $20 Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle.
Perhaps no other U.S. or world coin, for that matter, has the visual appeal of the 1907 Ultra High Relief Wire and Flat Edge issues. They are not just coins. They are works of art! One of the reasons both are considered one of the "100 Greatest U.S. Coins."
At the turn of the 20th century, President Theodore Roosevelt commissioned Augustus Saint-Gaudens, acclaimed as one of the world's premier sculptors, to redesign and overhaul the United States' four circulating gold coins.
Saint-Gaudens's first project was redesigning the Gold $10 (Coronet) Liberty Head Eagle and the $20 Liberty Head Gold Double Eagle. Both coins had the Liberty Head design grace U.S. gold coinage since the mid-1800s. Roosevelt felt strongly that a change was long overdue.
Saint-Gauden's first creation was to complete the redesign of the gold $10 Eagle. He used a design that featured an Indian Head motif. The $10 Indian Head Eagle became an instant hit and an instant Early 20th-century classic gold coin.
As far as the change and overhaul of the $20 Double Eagle, Roosevelt, and St. Gaudens agreed that the new $20 double eagle should be designed with ancient Greece's high-relief coinage in mind.
This idea was to bring out each exquisite detail of the coin. With its new design, the coin was successfully released in 1907 with two high-relief varieties.
The 1907 $20 Saint Ultra High Relief issues command a small fortune. Fortunately, quite a few of the St-Gaudens issues from 1908-1932 are not as rare and expensive and allow a broader range of collectors and investors the opportunity to secure a beautiful specimen or two in higher certified Uncirculated Mint State condition for an excellent collection representation.
The 1907 issue was the only year the "Saint" was minted with a high relief design, using Roman numerals MCMVII for its date and excluded the motto "IN GOD WE TRUST."
The $20 Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle is made of almost a full ounce of gold and arguably stands above the rest artistically as the single most magnificent gold coin of this or any era of U.S. gold coinage history.
There were a couple of problems with the new high-relief design. First, the coin required two blows to be struck and minted. The high-relief design went against the high-speed minting process needed for business circulation strike coins.
Secondly, the coins wouldn't stack. Reducing the coin's relief would allow the coin to be struck only once and stack properly.
After striking only 11,250 pieces, Mint officials substituted new lower relief dies. These remained in use through the end of the series in 1933.
The Mint replaced the Roman numerals used for the date with Arabic numbers to date all lower relief Saints and added the motto "IN GOD WE TRUST." Fortunately, the exquisite detail and artistic beauty of the $20 St. Gaudens was untarnished, even in lower relief.
The St. Gaudens Double Eagle was minted continuously from 1907 through 1916 when WWI halted the coin's production. After a three-year hiatus, the coins were struck yearly from 1920 to 1933.
TOP 4 REASONS WHY THE $20 SAINT-GAUDENS IS SO POPULAR
1.) HISTORIC DESIGN
2.) RARITY
3.) INVESTMENT POTENTIAL
4.) LIQUIDITY
The "Saint" was minted at three facilities, the main Mint in Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco. Excluding the two high-relief 1907's, the high relief 1908 and the 1933 issue, the series consists of 48 date and mintmarks.
The issues minted from 1929 to 1932 were held almost entirely as part of the nation's gold reserves, with very few coins released into circulation. Due to the Great Depression and the 1933 Executive Order 6102 signed by Franklin Roosevelt, which was basically a "gold confiscation law," most Saints were either held as reserves or sent along with millions of other gold denominations to the melting pot.
As a result, Saints dated 1929 through 1932 are exceedingly rare in higher Mint State condition.
The Mint produced nearly a half-million pieces dated 1933. Before the issue was ever released, President Franklin Roosevelt signed his Executive Order on March 6, 1933, requiring all gold in all forms held by U.S. citizens, banks, U.S mint vaults, and U.S. Treasury vaults be turned into the Federal Reserve Bank in exchange for federally issued paper currency. The order also officially took the United States off of the gold standard.
A handful of these 1933 specimens left the Mint unlawfully. To this day, the U.S. government maintains that it is illegal and a crime to own or have one in possession.
Overall, mintages for the St. Gaudens Double Eagle were generally modest. Due to their high face value, they were often used for large international transactions and did not widely circulate.
European banks held significantly large quantities of $20 Saints in their vaults before the Presidential recall in 1933, allowing them to escape the melting pot.
From the early 1920s to the early 1930s, the U.S. Mint held back significant portions of some mintages as gold reserves. Not many coins were released for general circulation.
After 1933, coins that were not released into circulation and those remaining in bank vaults in the United States were melted, causing some issues to become scarce to very rare. Some of these coins are the 1920-S, 1921, 1927-D, 1930-S, and 1932.
In the 1950s, some of the coins mentioned above began finding their way back from Europe to the United States and into collector and investor collections.
Proof coinage is rare and elusive, as only 687 proofs were struck between 1908 and 1915.
This large gold coin is actively sought after by investors, collectors, bullion brokers, and type collectors worldwide.
U.S. CITIZENS ARE PROHIBITED FROM OWNING GOLD
The first $20 gold St. Gauden Double Eagles to come off the minting press in 1933, were minted on March 2, 1933. On March 6, 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt ordered the Treasury not to pay out any gold, for the U.S. Mint to stop minting gold coins, and ordered that banks holding gold transfer it to the Federal Reserve to combat the Great Depression.
On December 28, 1933, Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau ordered American citizens to turn in all gold coins and gold certificates, receiving paper currency in return.
This action by the President, known as Order 6102, forever ended new gold coinage to be used in circulation and as currency in the United States. The Treasury melted millions of gold coins in the following years.
The U.S. Treasury sent two 1933 double eagles to the Smithsonian Institution for the National Coin Collection, where they remain today.
SUMMARY:
Without question, every serious United States Gold and Silver rare coin portfolio must have at least one representation of the $20 Gold Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle in it.
There are a few ways to collect, invest in, and acquire this beautiful $20 gold piece. We recommend acquiring at least one specimen with a low mintage figure in the highest quality and certified grade that fits your budget. This is also the type of coin where the "acquire as many as possible" approach can be used, along with using the "date run" strategy.
Join us and learn how to acquire arguably the most beautiful and artistic United States gold coin ever minted, the $20 Gold Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle.
Today, begin learning how to assemble the most historically significant, valuable, and rewarding certified United States gold and silver rare coin collection of a lifetime to fit your budget. A collection that will enrich your life and bring joy for generations to come. One you will be proud to own and admired by ALL!
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