1875 20C Twenty Cent Piece PCGS AU58 (CAC)

This is an affordable type coin of a short-lived series. Out of its mintage of 36,910, there have been 104 graded AU58 by PCGS, with 251 finer. In CAC, there are 16 in AU58, with 31 finer.

According to the Judd book on Pattern coins, "The year 1875 host a potpourri of pattern issues, some with true pattern intent..." No doubt chief among them with "pattern intent" was the twenty-cent piece--or double-dime, as it is sometimes called, which made its numismatic debut that year. However, despite the diversity of attractive designs that were produced at the Mint, the twenty-cent piece carried the same obverse design as the 25 cent Liberty Seated piece that had been circularizing since 1839.

An example of one of the attractive 20 cent patterns crafted in 1875. If this design, or one like it, was adopted by the U.S. Mint, then perhaps the 20-cent piece would have lasted more than a handful of years.

Ron Guth writes, "In 1875, an entirely new denomination was added to the U.S. coin line-up -- the Twenty Cent piece. One would expect a huge fanfare to accompany the introduction of a new denomination, but the mintage of the inaugural year, at least at the Philadelphia mint, was meager at best. Apparently, the big need for the Twenty Cent piece was out West, where the San Francisco mint produced over 1 million examples and the Carson City mint struck over 133,000 pieces. Sadly, the Twenty Cent piece never caught on, in large part because of its similarity in size and appearance to the well-known Seated Liberty Quarter Dollar. In 1876, the mintages dropped precipitously and from 1877 to 1878 only Proofs were struck."