1862-S $20 Liberty Head Double Eagle PCGS AU58 - Civil War Gold Issue!

Rare piece from the Civil War. This issue is rare in AU58: PCGS has awarded 71 specimens that grade, with 34 finer. The top grade PCGS has given the 1862-S is MS63. Writes gold specialist Doug Winter, "I’d rank Civil War gold as one of the more popular ultra-specialties in American numismatics."

The original San Francisco Mint, where this coin was produced.

The population of this Civil War issue has increased due to discovery of it on shipwrecks, thereby lowering the price. Doug Winter writes, "Until the discovery of the S.S. Brother Jonathan, the 1862-S was a date which was not often seen above the lower About Uncirculated grades. The discovery of a small group of Uncirculated examples in the S.S. Republic made this date slightly more available in high grades but the 1862-S remains very elusive in Mint State....A total of 114 were found on the S.S. Republic including at least 11 in Uncirculated. There were 68 in the S.S. Brother Jonathan, with most of these in the Extremely Fine-40 to About Uncirculated-58 range. There are still examples of this date being found in Europe and in other overseas sources, but the coins which are located are seldom finer than AU53 to AU55." This coin is not a shipwreck coin, however those discoveries make this a more affordable option than it would have been otherwise.