1910-D $20 Saint Gaudens Double Eagle PCGS MS64

With its relatively low mintage of 429,000, this is a better date in the popular Saint-Gaudens double eagle series (1907-1933). Affordable and collectible in MS64, just one point higher on the grading scale raises the price over $1,000. There have been 2,701 graded MS64 by PCGS, with 1,481 finer.

“You know, Saint-Gaudens, this is my pet crime.” That is what Theodore Roosevelt told Saint-Gaudens when they planned the idea of what became the beautiful coin offered here by AUCM.

Wrote President Theodore Roosevelt to Secretary of the U.S. Treasury Leslie Mortier Shaw on December 27, 1904, “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?”

Two weeks later, on the evening of January 12,1905, acclaimed sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens was in the White House enjoying a glass of wine before dining with Roosevelt and Shaw. The two men—the president and the artist—had an enthusiastic, animated conversation about the beauty of high-relief Greek coins. Dinner saw the three men discussing 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. “You know, Saint-Gaudens, this is my pet crime.” Saint-Gaudens' double eagle saw its debut in 1907.