1864-S $20 Liberty Head Double Eagle PCGS AU55 Ex.SS Brother Jonathan

Excellent opportunity to acquire Civil War era gold!

Before the discovery and recovery of the golden treasures of the S.S. Brother Jonathan and S.S. Republic, the 1864-S was among the most difficult Type One Liberty Head double eagles to locate in Mint State. The large mintage of 793,660 supplied a sufficient number of VF to AU specimens, however Uncirculated pieces were rare. That all changed noticeably after coins from the two shipwrecks entered the numismatic marketplace. In his book, A Guide Book of Double Eagle Coins, Q. David Bowers approximates a current population of 45 to 60 pieces in Mint State grades.

PCGS has graded 83 examples of the 1864-S twenty as AU55 with 145 finer.

The paddle steamer S.S. Brother Jonathan in 1862. Image: Wikimedia Commons.

It was in Williamsburg, New York (currently a neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY) that Perrine, Patterson & Stack constructed the Brother Jonathan for Edward Mills. At the final cost of $190,000 she was launched on November 2, 1850. Built with live oak, locust, cedar, and iron braces, the dimensions of Brother Jonathan were approximately 221 feet long, thirty-six feet wide, and fourteen feet deep. She had a tonnage of 1,181 and passenger capacity of 350.

Originally, the ship had two decks crafted of white oak flooring and two masts: a square-rigged foremast and a schooner-rigged mainmast. Steering and navigation equipment were found between the funnel and foremast, while the boilers were forward of amidships. Paddlewheels on both sides were thirty-three feet in diameter and powered by a walking beam engine. Morgan Iron Works fitted the engine room, while the engine itself was recovered from the wreckage of the Atlantic, which sank in 1846 after hitting a powerful storm in Long Island Sound. Early 1851 saw Brother Jonathan begin its route from New York to Chargres in Panama.