1854-S $20 Liberty Head Double Eagle PCGS AU53

Historic issue from first year of the San Francisco Mint!

This dramatic piece would be a great coin to add to the collection of a specialist in San Francisco gold issues. Writes Doug Winter, “The 1854-S is a numismatically significant issue due to its status as the first double eagle struck at the recently-opened San Francisco mint …. The 1854-S is one of the better-struck Type One double eagles from this mint. The obverse is well-detailed with sharp hair curls, stars, and denticles.”

Operations at the San Francisco Mint: “Running the gold into ingots,” from Hutchings’ Illus. Calif. Magazine, Vol. 1, October 1856. Image: Library of Congress.

March of 1854 saw the San Francisco Mint began coinage operations at 608-610 Commercial Street, which was previously occupied by the leading private coinage firm of Moffat & Company. It was not a smooth beginning. Due to a shortage of parting acids, the mint had to limit production of smaller denominations gold coins and give emphasis to the high-demand eagle and double eagle. The first year San Francisco Mint double eagle saw a mintage of 141,468, and many of those coins were distributed promptly into the specie-hungry California and West Coast economies. Therefore, many surviving examples display signs of circulation.