1885 $20 Liberty Head Double Eagle, NGC MS60 - Only 751 Minted!

We are indeed proud at AUCM to offer a great rarity in the Liberty Head double eagle series: an 1885 $20 gold piece, graded NGC MS60. Numismatic researcher P. Scott Rubin writes, "The 1885 Double Eagle is a very rare coin especially when considering the coins struck for circulation. Collectors of Double Eagles will find it easier to obtain a Gem Proof specimen than a Gem circulation strike specimen." If you are an intrepid collector of extremely rare issues of U.S. coins, then you should carefully consider this offering.

The $20 Liberty head double eagles were a popular instrument of foreign trade during the second half of the 19th century. Such coins were immediately recognizable to U.S. trade partners in Latin America and Europe, for their appearance, weight and gold content were internationally known and respected. Conversely, a double eagles was a lot of money to the average American worker. Plus the coins were too large and heavy for everyday commerce. Therefore Liberty head $20 gold pieces were a rare sight in circulation in the U.S. However, the U.S. Mint typically produced large quantities of them to serve as currency reserves and for the settling of large accounts in foreign trade. But during the 1880s, the U.S. Mint limited mintage of double eagles in an effort to encourage the use of gold bars for international transactions. This was possibly because so much time and effort was needed to produce an absurd amount of silver dollars, per the mandate of the Bland-Allison Act of 1878. This policy resulted in only 751 business strike double eagles being struck at the mint in Philadelphia in 1885, thus creating a great rarity. In order to satisfy collector demand, 77 of the 1885 proof double eagles were also minted. Virtually all of the 751 coins were released into circulation, for the majority of 19th-century numismatists preferred to purchase proof coins for their collections.