1907 $20 Saint Gaudens Double Eagle PCGS MS65

Here is a stunning example of the first year of the issuance of the ‘Saint,’ the double eagle designed by Augustus Saint-Gaudens upon the insistence of President Theodore Roosevelt. PCGS has graded 2,617 examples as MS65 with 671 finer. Collectors Universe prices this issue at $6,000.00 in MS65.

"You know, Saint-Gaudens, this is my pet crime," President Theodore Roosevelt confided to the famed sculptor-medalist, Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

It was on December 27, 1904, that President Theodore Roosevelt wrote to Secretary of the Treasury Leslie Mortier Shaw. He declared: “I think our coinage is artistically of atrocious hideousness. Would it be possible, without asking permission of Congress, to employ a man like Saint-Gaudens to give a coinage that would have some beauty?”

A short two weeks after that letter was sent, on the evening of January 12,1905, the renowned sculptor-medalist Augustus Saint-Gaudens was in the White House enjoying a glass of fine wine before dinner with Roosevelt and Shaw. During a sumptuous meal the two men—the president and the artist—engaged in an enthusiastic, animated conversation about the beauty of high-relief Greek coins.

The three men concocted a scheme for redesigning the cent, the eagle (gold $10) and the double eagle (gold $20)--all behind the back of U.S. Mint Chief Engraver Charles E. Barber. “I would have the Mint stamp modern versions of those Greek coins in spite of itself,” said Roosevelt, if the honored sculptor would design them. Lowering his voice, the president said, “You know, Saint-Gaudens, this is my pet crime.” Saint-Gaudens' stunning double eagle saw its debut in 1907.