1861 $20 Liberty Head Double Eagle NGC AU55 Ex.SS Republic

Civil War era gold to add to your collection!

Here's a historic issue from the first year of the U.S. Civil War. This piece would be an excellent type coin candidate for your collection. Gold specialist Doug Winter tells us, "I’d rank Civil War gold as one of the more popular ultra-specialties in American numismatics."

There were 305 of the 1861 twenty found among the wreckage of the SS Republic, 200 of which were uncirculated. NGC has graded 1,034 as AU55 with 1,683 finer.

Winter writes, "The 1861 double eagle is a well-struck issue. Some coins have weakness in the hair but the detail is still considerably sharper than what is seen on the San Francisco issues of this era. The reverse is also well detailed with the only weakness occurring on the wing tips and the tail feathers."

Group of Company A, 8^th New York State Militia, in Arlington, Virginia, during the Civil War. Photo: Library of Congress.

Fate of the S.S. Republic

After eleven years of varying service, the steamship was renamed the SS Republic after being sold at auction in 1865. It then returned it its past life as a cargo-passenger ship on the New York to New Orleans route. However, on her fifth civilian trek after the Civil War, a hurricane off the coast of Georgia resulted in severe hull leaks and she sank to the ocean’s floor on October 25, 1865. The total cargo of 5,000 barrels—that housed $400,000 in coins, mostly gold $10 and $20 pieces—was lost. In 2003, the wreck of the Republic was found, and a salvaging team recovered about one-third (51,000 coins) of the rare 19th-century gold and silver coins that were aboard (currently worth an estimated $75 million).