1896-S $20 Liberty Head Double Eagle PCGS MS61

Here's a great opportunity to get a reasonably priced specimen of an uncirculated Liberty head double eagle. The 1896-S issue saw a mintage of 1,403,925, resulting in a sizable population graded by PCGS. There have been 2,283 graded MS61, with 6,317 finer. This is an affordable type coin as a representative of the ever-popular Liberty head double eagle series. Plus pieces from the San Francisco Mint are always desirable. That is due to its connection to the California Gold Rush.

San Francisco harbor in 1850 or 1851 during the Gold Rush. During this time, the harbor would become so crowded that ships often had to wait days before unloading their passengers and goods.

John David Borthwick was a Scottish journalist and author. Upon entering Gold Rush San Francisco in 1851, Borthwitck reported that the city had a new but makeshift and temporary appearance with a motley assemblage of structures. Among them were tents with wooden fronts supporting the sign of its occupant. Others were put together with zinc sheets on a wooden frame. Several unsightly corrugated iron dwellings were also found there; they were generally painted a murky brown. There were many structures that Borthwick called  "American" houses that were painted white with green shutters. Dingy-looking Chinese structures were also seen. An occasional substantial brick building was discovered. Borthwick wrote that "the great majority were nondescript, shapeless, patchwork concerns, in the fabrication of which, sheet iron, wood, zinc, and canvass seemed to have been employed indiscriminately..." Sometimes in the midst of a row of makeshift edifices one found, quite unexpectedly, the hulk of a ship serving as a warehouse, boarding house, or some other business establishment. The soil from the high hills was used to fill in the bay. Therefore in 1851, San Francisco's business sector sat on solid ground on the very spot where a few short years before large ships lay at anchor. The main street of town was around three-fourths of a mile long and had a majority of the bankers' offices, major stores, the finest restaurants, and quite a few gambling and drinking saloons.