1916-S $20 Saint Gaudens Double Eagle PCGS MS65 (CAC)

Here's a stunning example of Augustus Saint-Gauden's masterwork in a desirable gem grade. PCGS has graded 1,246 as MS65 with 257 finer. In CAC, there are 107 in MS65 with 32 finer.

Gold specialist David Akers writes, "The 1916-S seems to have been minted to a very high standard of quality. The strike is almost always very sharp and the surfaces...do not have the metal flow problems encountered on many examples of the 1915-S. Lustre is always very good to excellent and the color is usually a very appealing rich greenish gold, sometimes with a light orange or coppery tint. High-grade examples of this issue invariably have great 'eye appeal.' " The would be a fantastic addition to a high-end collection.

It was only in 1991 that the numismatic community discovered the identity of the model for the Saint-Gaudens double eagle. Her name was Hettie Anderson, a light-skinned mixed-race woman who arrive in Manhattan in the 1890s. Quite a few artists and sculptors sought to depict what one newspaper account described as her "creamy skin, crisp curling hair, and warm brown eyes."

Hettie's image represents the winged Greek goddess Victory in Saint-Gaudens's equestrian sculpture honoring Civil War general William Tecumseh Sherman, as well as the same upon the Double Eagle (1907-1933). In 1899, the New York Journal and Advertiser wrote, "There is nothing in Greek sculpture finer than her figure. [It is] imposing [and] her carriage queenly..."

She fled bitter prejudice in the post-Reconstruction South to model for the likes of Daniel Chester French, Adolf Weinman, and Saint-Gaudens. Upon arriving in New York, Hettie worked as a clerk and seamstress while studying at the Art Students League. Research tells us that before the Civil War, Anderson's family was designated 'free colored persons'; they owned land and earned wages. In New York, she and her mother were listed in the census as white.

"I need her badly," wrote Saint-Gaudens to a friend. He wrote in a draft of his memoir that he counted on her stamina for "posing patiently, steadily and thoroughly in the Spirit one wished..."