1911-D $20 Saint Gaudens Double Eagle PCGS MS65

Here is a stunning example of perhaps the most beautiful design to grace the surfaces of an American coin: the Saint-Gaudens double eagle. This 1911-D piece would be a great addition to the collection of a numismatist who would like such a striking specimen among his or her holdings. Jeff Garrett writes, "The 1911–D is among the most plentiful Double Eagle of this time period  .... Most of the 1911–D Double Eagles seen are well struck with sometimes deep green–gold colorations." PCGS has graded 2,524 in MS65, with 845 finer. Collectors Universe gives this issue a price of $4,000.00 in MS65.

President Theodore Roosevelt in 1918. He honored Augustus Saint-Gaudens with a memorial speech. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

After his death, Theodore Roosevelt honored Augustus Saint-Gaudens as an artist and friend by saying in a 1908 memorial speech that his double eagle and eagle were “more beautiful than any coins since the days of the Greeks, and they achieve their striking beauty because Saint-Gaudens not only possessed a perfect mastery in the physical address of his craft, but also a daring and original imagination.”

In a thank you letter to Roosevelt, Saint-Gaudens’ widow, Augusta, wrote, “Such a tribute from you would, I know, have meant much to him especially the recognition of his labor on the coins into which he put his whole heart. Your presence with Mrs. Roosevelt gave to the memorial a character and meaning which without you it could not have happened and I hardly know how to thank you both for this expression of your friendliness now that he is gone.”