1861-O $20 Liberty Head Double Eagle CSA PCGS AU50 - Struck by Confederacy!

1861-O $20 Liberty Head Double Eagle PCGS AU50--$72,500.00 "Struck by Confederacy"

      AUCM is proud to present for consideration a great rarity struck by the Confederacy during the first year of the Civil War. The 1861-O $20 double eagle is indeed a great rarity on its own, with its original total mintage of 17,741. However, the mintage under the administration of the Confederacy was quite small. This would be the perfect coin for a type set of extremely rare issues produced under the Confederacy, as well as a type set of super-rarities within the $20 Liberty double eagle series.

      This issue, the 1861-O, was the last double eagle struck in New Orleans until the denomination was minted there again starting in 1879. It is significant to numismatists due to its being the final Type One issue from this mint. What makes this issue even more historically important is that it was struck under the auspices of three different authorities: the Union, the State of Louisiana, and the Confederacy. Doug Winter has determined the mintage breakdown to be:

The Union: 5,000 minted from January 1 to January 26, 1861

State of Louisiana: 9,750 minted from January 26 to May 31, 1861

The Confederacy: 2,991 minted after June 1, 1861

      This coin can be counted as a truly rare U.S. gold coin. Coins struck by the Confederacy are, in essence, museum pieces. In fact, a numismatic friend had loaned his Confederate-struck half dollar to the Museum at the New Orleans Mint for several years. Out of the original, and minuscule, mintage of 17,741, a mere 2,991 were produced by the Confederacy. Doug Winter writes, "After looking through hundreds of auction catalogs and studying images of 1861-O double eagles offered for sale, Joe Gaines and I have determined that around one-fifth of the coins offered had a strong date and showed the obverse crack [from the cheek through the hair]. When one considers that the Confederacy is said to have struck approximately 17% of the original mintage of this issue...this is almost exactly the percentage of coins which exhibit the strong date with the crack. We believe that these coins are the ones made by the Confederacy." Out of its mintage of 17,741, only 130 were graded by PCGS. Of those, 19 carry the grade of AU50, with 50 finer (as of 4/2021). However, since 17% of this issue was struck by the Confederacy, then very few of those 50 finer than AU50 have that historic pedigree. This is a bucket list coin for the intrepid collector who hunts down the rarest of the rare for his or her numismatic holdings. This is definitely a legacy coin, one to enjoy for many years and pass down as a family heirloom.