1924 $20 Saint Gaudens Double Eagle PCGS MS65 (Gold Foil)

Jeff Garrett writes, "Much of Europe was in financial distress around this time [1924] and large quantities of this [date] were sent overseas for international banking transactions. Many sat there for decades and large numbers continue to find their way back to the United States each year....the abundance of coins available makes this a great candidate for a type coin of the issue." PCGS has graded 52,714 of this issue in MS65, with 11,982 finer. Plus it has the exclusive PCGS Gold Foil label.

President Theodore Roosevelt honored his friend Augustus Saint-Gaudens in a memorial speech after the artist's passing.

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.”