1907 $20 Saint Gaudens Double Eagle PCGS MS65 Ex.Rive d'Or Collection

When comparing the price of this first year issue to those of the high relief versions of the 1907 Saint-Gaudens double eagle, you will see that even in its MS65 grade this piece is a relative bargain! Even without the high relief strike, this coin is quite dramatic and beautiful. Numismatic scholar and art critic Cornelius Vermeule writes, "The [Saint-Gaudens] double eagle is perhaps the most majestic coin ever to bear our national imprint.”

PCGS has graded 2,611 pieces as MS65 with 676 finer. Collectors Universe gives this issue a price of $6,000 in MS65.

Augustus Saint-Gaudens, the artist-medalist who created this stunning design, late 1880s, photographed by George Collins Cox. Photo courtesy Smithsonian Institute.

Gold specialist David Akers writes, “After Charles Barber made his ‘technical improvements’ on Saint-Gaudens' original design, the relief was ‘flattened’ significantly giving this issue … the appearance of being weakly struck, especially on Miss Liberty. Actually, the strike is generally quite sharp; it is just that the dies lacked the proper detail. Lustre on this issue is usually good but is slightly subdued … in comparison to the later (after 1920) issues. The surfaces are the 'soft’ frosty type seen on most early Saint-Gaudens pieces, particularly the Philadelphia Mint issues.”