1862-S $20 Liberty Head Double Eagle NGC XF45 - Civil War Era Gold

Here's a great Civil War era S-Mint type coin to add to your collection at a great price.  Plus, writes Doug Winter, "I’d rank Civil War gold as one of the more popular ultra-specialties in American numismatics." Out of its mintage of 854,173, there are 249 in NGC XF45, with 887 finer.

When did Civil War gold become popular? Doug Winter writes, "I had a brainstorm one afternoon. 2011 marked the sesquicentennial of the beginning of the Civil War, and what would be more natural than to promote Civil War gold? I began to quietly accumulate coins and simultaneously began to feature articles and blogs on my website touting them....I remember selling virtually all the coins I had very early on in my promotion and not being able to find many more for Round Two and Round Three. Other dealers had the same idea I did, and suddenly Civil War gold became popular."

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.