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A double eagle is a
gold coin A gold coin is a coin that is made mostly or entirely of gold. Most gold coins minted since 1800 are 90–92% gold (22karat), while most of today's gold bullion coins are pure gold, such as the Britannia, Canadian Maple Leaf, and American Buf ...
of the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
with a denomination of $20. (Its gold content of 0.9675 
troy Troy ( el, Τροία and Latin: Troia, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ''Truwiša'') or Ilion ( el, Ίλιον and Latin: Ilium, Hittite: 𒃾𒇻𒊭 ''Wiluša'') was an ancient city located at Hisarlik in present-day Turkey, south-west of Ç ...
 oz (30.0926 grams) was worth $20 at the 1849 official price of $20.67/oz.) The coins are 34 mm x 2 mm and are made from a 90% gold (0.900 fine = 21.6 kt) and 10% copper alloy and have a total weight of 1.0750 troy ounces (33.4362 grams). The
eagle Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, j ...
,
half eagle The half eagle is a United States coin that was produced for circulation from 1795 to 1929 and in commemorative and bullion coins since 1983. Composed almost entirely of gold, its face value of five dollars is half that of the eagle coin. Prod ...
, and
quarter eagle The quarter eagle was a gold coin issued by the United States with a value of two hundred and fifty cents, or two dollars and fifty cents. It was given its name in the Coinage Act of 1792, as a derivation from the US ten-dollar eagle coin. His ...
were defined by name in the
Act of Congress An Act of Congress is a statute enacted by the United States Congress. Acts may apply only to individual entities (called private laws), or to the general public ( public laws). For a bill to become an act, the text must pass through both house ...
originally authorizing them. Likewise, the double eagle was created by the
Coinage Act of 1849 The Coinage Act of 1849 was an Act of the United States Congress passed during the California Gold Rush authorizing the Mint to produce two new gold coins in response to the increased gold supply: the small gold dollar and the large double eagl ...
. Since the $20 gold piece had twice the value of the eagle, these coins were designated "double eagles". Before, the most valuable American coin was the $10 gold eagle, first produced in 1795, two years after the
United States Mint The United States Mint is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury responsible for producing coinage for the United States to conduct its trade and commerce, as well as controlling the movement of bullion. It does not produce paper money; tha ...
opened. The production of the first double eagle coincided with the 1849
California Gold Rush The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California f ...
. In that year, the mint produced two pieces in
proof Proof most often refers to: * Proof (truth), argument or sufficient evidence for the truth of a proposition * Alcohol proof, a measure of an alcoholic drink's strength Proof may also refer to: Mathematics and formal logic * Formal proof, a c ...
. The first now resides in the
Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Found ...
in Washington, D.C. The second was presented to Treasury Secretary William M. Meredith and was later sold as part of his estate—the present location of this coin remains unknown. In 1904, President
Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...
sought to beautify American coinage, and proposed
Augustus Saint-Gaudens Augustus Saint-Gaudens (; March 1, 1848 – August 3, 1907) was an American sculptor of the Beaux-Arts generation who embodied the ideals of the American Renaissance. From a French-Irish family, Saint-Gaudens was raised in New York City, he tra ...
as an artist capable of the task. Although the sculptor had poor experiences with the Mint and its chief engraver, Charles E. Barber, Saint-Gaudens accepted Roosevelt's call. The work was subject to considerable delays, due to Saint-Gaudens's declining health and difficulties because of the high
relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...
of his design. Saint-Gaudens died in 1907, after designing the eagle and double eagle, but before the designs were finalized for production. The new coin became known as the Saint-Gaudens double eagle. Regular production continued until 1933, when the official price of gold was changed to $35/oz by the
Gold Reserve Act The United States Gold Reserve Act of January 30, 1934 required that all gold and gold certificates held by the Federal Reserve be surrendered and vested in the sole title of the United States Department of the Treasury. It also prohibited the Tr ...
. The 1933 double eagle is among the most valuable of U.S. coins, with the sole example – the King Farouk specimen, which was purchased by
King Farouk Farouk I (; ar, فاروق الأول ''Fārūq al-Awwal''; 11 February 1920 – 18 March 1965) was the tenth ruler of Egypt from the Muhammad Ali dynasty and the penultimate King of Egypt and the Sudan, succeeding his father, Fuad I, in 1 ...
of
Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...
in 1944 – currently known to be in private hands, selling in 2002 for $7,590,020 and resold to an unknown buyer in 2021 for $18.8 million. Twelve other specimens exist, two of which are held in the National Numismatic Collection and the
United States Bullion Depository The United States Bullion Depository, often known as Fort Knox, is a fortified bank vault, vault building located next to the United States Army post of Fort Knox, Kentucky. It is operated by the United States Department of the Treasury. The va ...
at
Fort Knox Fort Knox is a United States Army installation in Kentucky, south of Louisville and north of Elizabethtown. It is adjacent to the United States Bullion Depository, which is used to house a large portion of the United States' official gold re ...
.


Regular issue

Regular issue double eagles come in two major types and six minor varieties as follows: * Liberty Head (Coronet) 1849–1907 **Liberty Head, no motto, value "TWENTY D." 1849–1866 **Liberty Head, with motto, value "TWENTY D." 1866–1876 **Liberty Head, with motto, value "TWENTY DOLLARS" 1877–1907 * Saint-Gaudens 1907–1933 **Saint-Gaudens, high relief, Roman numerals, no motto 1907 **Saint-Gaudens, low relief, Arabic numerals, no motto 1907–1908 **Saint-Gaudens, low relief, Arabic numerals, with motto 1908–1933


Liberty Head

Due to the less desirable artwork and therefore lower demand, Liberty Head (Coronet) $20 gold pieces are less often encountered, and the common subtype commands less than the Saint-Gaudens type. In 1866, the motto "
In God We Trust "In God We Trust" (also rendered as "In God we trust") is the United States national motto, official motto of the United States and of the U.S. state of Florida. It was adopted by the U.S. Congress in 1956, replacing ("Out of many, one"), whic ...
" was added to the double eagle, creating a second subtype. In 1877, the coin's denomination design on the reverse was changed from "TWENTY D." to "TWENTY DOLLARS" creating a third and final subtype for the series. A 1879 pattern coin was made for the quintuple stella using a design combining features of the Liberty Head double eagle and stella pattern coin and using the same alloy as the stella (90 parts gold, three parts silver, and seven parts copper); this coin was stolen in July 2008.


Saint-Gaudens

The Saint-Gaudens double eagle is named for the designer,
Augustus Saint-Gaudens Augustus Saint-Gaudens (; March 1, 1848 – August 3, 1907) was an American sculptor of the Beaux-Arts generation who embodied the ideals of the American Renaissance. From a French-Irish family, Saint-Gaudens was raised in New York City, he tra ...
, one of the premier sculptors in American history.
Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...
imposed upon him in his last few years to redesign the nation's coinage at the beginning of the 20th century. Saint-Gaudens' work on the high-relief $20 gold piece is considered to be one of the most extraordinary pieces of art on any American coin. The mint eventually insisted on a low-relief version, as the high-relief coin took up to eleven strikes to bring up the details and did not stack correctly for banking purposes. Only 12,367 of these coins were struck in 1907. These coins easily top the $10,000 price in circulated grades, but can reach nearly a half million dollars in the best states of preservation. There were several changes in the early years of this design. The first coins issued in 1907 design featured a date in Roman numerals, but this was changed later that year to the more convenient Arabic numerals. The motto "In God We Trust" was omitted from the initial design, as Roosevelt felt that putting the name of God on money that could be used for immoral purposes was inappropriate. By act of Congress, the motto was added in mid-1908. The design of the Saint-Gaudens coin was slightly changed once more when New Mexico and Arizona became states in 1912, and the number of stars along the rim was accordingly increased from 46 to 48. Double eagles were routinely minted through 1933, although few of the very last years' coinages were released before the gold recall legislation of that year. Accordingly, these issues (when the U.S. Treasury permits individuals to own them) bring very high prices. The Saint-Gaudens obverse design was reused in the American eagle gold bullion coins that were instituted in 1986. The early 1907 double eagles and the 1986-1991 gold American eagles are the only instances of Roman numerals denoting the date on American coinage. The 2009 ultra-high relief American Eagle also used Roman numerals. On January 22, 2009, the U.S. Mint released ultra-high relief double eagles using the deep design that Saint-Gaudens envisioned, so that the U.S. Mint could, as its web site states "fulfill Augustus Saint-Gaudens' vision of an ultra high relief coin that could not be realized in 1907 with his legendary Double Eagle liberty design." Despite that claim, however, the mint actually reaffirmed just what doomed the first attempts in 1907. The coin's highly abradable 0.9999 fine gold composition and the multiple strikes required to bring up the design are not practical for business strikes. Because of their higher gold content, and greater striking pressure, the coins are 27 mm wide and 4 mm deep (the same diameter as a gold eagle), rather than the 34 mm x 2 mm that had been established for U.S. $20 gold coins. The initial selling price was $1239. With the rising price of gold by June it had climbed to $1339, and by December to $1489. There was no limit on the coinage of these one time uncirculated issues, which bear the date "MMIX". In September, the one coin per person ordering restriction was removed. The final mintage was 115,178. These coins were minted at the West Point Mint, but none of them bear the "W" mint mark, making them particularly unusual.


1933 double eagle

In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt stopped the coinage of gold and made it illegal to own the metal (although coin collectors could retain their pieces). With one exception, no 1933 double eagles were ever legally released, although some were stolen from the government, and over the years several were recovered. In the summer of 2002, a 1933 double eagle was auctioned off for US$7,590,020 which shattered the old record of $4,140,000 paid at a public auction for an 1804 silver dollar. This piece is unique as the only 1933 double eagle the U.S. government has deemed legal for its citizens to own (having been negotiated as such through terms of a U.S. treaty with a foreign government). Even illegal instances of the 1933 double eagle could be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, but it would be illegal for a U.S. coin dealer to broker a deal with one of these coins. There is no other date of Saint-Gaudens double eagle that is worth a significant fraction of this extraordinary coin. A complete uncirculated set of all other Saint-Gaudens double eagles could be put together for just over three million dollars (less than half the price paid for the 1933), including the extremely rare, ultra-high relief, proof pattern. Without the rare pattern, the set would be less than $750,000. In August 2005, the United States Mint recovered ten 1933 double eagle coins from a private collector who had contacted the United States Mint to ascertain their authenticity. Joan S. Langbord claimed that she inherited the coins from her father, a suspect in their original theft in 1933, and had found them in a safe deposit box in 2003. The Mint announced that it would consider saving the coins for display. Meanwhile, Langbord filed a federal suit to recover the coins after her hopes of receiving monetary compensation from the federal government were not realized. In September 2009, a federal judge ruled that the government had until the end of the month to return the confiscated coins to the Langbord family, or to prove that they had indeed been stolen. On July 20, 2011, a civil-court jury awarded ownership of the ten coins to the U.S. government on grounds that the coins were stolen from the mint. However, on April 17, 2015, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia overturned the jury's decision and ruled that the ten 1933 double eagles did indeed belong to Joan S. Langbord and that they must be returned to her family by the U.S. Mint. The appeals court returned the coins to the Langbords because U.S. officials had not responded within a 90-day limit to the family's seized-property claim. On August 1, 2016, the full appeals court reversed its earlier ruling and allowed the government to keep the coins.


Quintuple Stella

In response to international monetary conferences held in Europe, the
United States Mint The United States Mint is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury responsible for producing coinage for the United States to conduct its trade and commerce, as well as controlling the movement of bullion. It does not produce paper money; tha ...
struck patterns of various gold coins for use as an international currency in the late 1870s and early 1880s. The double eagle was one such coin, struck with a modified Liberty Head design featuring "★30★G★1.5★S★3.5★C★35★G★R★A★M★S★" on the obverse in 1879, similar to the Stella pattern. Five of the resulting "Quintuple Stella" coins are known to exist in gold, plus about a dozen in copper, some of which have been plated in gold. The period in the "3.5" was omitted in error on the first copper coin struck.


See also

*
Eagle (United States coin) The eagle was a United States $10 gold coin issued by the United States Mint from 1792 to 1933. The eagle was the largest of the five main decimal base-units of denomination used for circulating coinage in the United States prior to 1933, the ye ...
* 20 yen coin *
Double sovereign The double sovereign is a gold coin of the United Kingdom, with a nominal value of two pounds sterling (£2) or forty shillings. It was first minted using the design by Benedetto Pistrucci in 1820 under the reign of George III and never entered c ...
*
Gold coin A gold coin is a coin that is made mostly or entirely of gold. Most gold coins minted since 1800 are 90–92% gold (22karat), while most of today's gold bullion coins are pure gold, such as the Britannia, Canadian Maple Leaf, and American Buf ...
*
Commemorative coin Commemorative coins are coins issued to commemorate some particular event or issue with a distinct design with reference to the occasion on which they were issued. Many coins of this category serve as collectors items only, although some countries ...
* Gold as an investment *
1933 double eagle The 1933 double eagle is a United States 20-dollar gold coin. Although 445,500 specimens of this Saint-Gaudens double eagle were minted in 1933, none were ever officially circulated, and all but two were ordered to be melted down. However, 20 ...


Notes


References

*


External links


All US Gold Double Eagles
by year and type histories, photos, and more
Modern double eagles
{{Augustus Saint-Gaudens 1849 introductions Coins of the United States United States gold coins Sculptures by Augustus Saint-Gaudens Goddess of Liberty on coins Eagles on coins