Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle

Up until 1900, most U.S. coins were designed by either remodeling old designs or copying other nations’ designs. This changed in 1904 when President Teddy Roosevelt noted that “the state of our coinage is artistically of atrocious hideousness.”

Roosevelt then asked his friend, world-renowned artist Augustus Saint-Gaudens, to design a more appealing coin. The result was the exquisite Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle $20 coin, which stands as a testament to both men’s belief that the United States deserved a coinage worthy of its bright future.

And the result was beautiful.  The Lady Liberty on this coin was so lifelike that it established the gold standard for all coins to follow.

Several other things make this $20 gold coin unique:

• It was commissioned, not struck after an Act of Congress like most other coins.
• The President at the time had more say in its design than the Director General of the U.S. Mint, which was unusual.
• It circulated as hard currency overseas primarily.

The Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle coin required nine strikes from the press to achieve the high relief that Saint-Gaudens had envisioned. However, it only went through three iterations before being put into full circulation.  Only 20,000 of these coins were minted and put into circulation because too high relief made them challenging to mass-produce.

On the obverse or front, Saint-Gaudens created a design with a flying bald eagle that would later become popular on American coins. To keep the scene balanced, Saint-Gaudens chose to put “E PLURIBUS UNUM” around the edge of the coin instead of engraving it on the face. His goal was to create a coin comparable in beauty to those from ancient Greece.

This coin makes a striking addition to any collection or portfolio.

For current pricing and more information, please contact us at (877) 444-0923.