4658

1921 $20 MS61 NGC. The 1921 Saint-Gaudens double eagle

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / US Coins Start Price:90,000.00 USD Estimated At:1.00 - 1,000,000.00 USD
1921 $20 MS61 NGC. The 1921 Saint-Gaudens double eagle
<B>1921<$20> MS61 NGC.</B></I> The 1921 Saint-Gaudens double eagle is one of the major rarities in the series, despite an innocent sounding mintage of 528,500 coins. This issue is the only gold coin struck by the United States during the year. This date was not exported for international trade, and did not circulate in the U.S. either. As a result, these coins stayed in the Treasury vaults until the 1930s when they were melted. Examples have not been found in overseas holdings returned to the U.S., and no domestic hoards have been located. It is probably the case that not more than 100 examples of this date survive in all grades.<BR> Despite the appearance of multiple key-date coins from many series in our sales, this date is not such a coin. Virtually every Heritage Signature sale has multiple examples of the 1856 Flying Eagle Cent, the 1909-S V.D.B. cent, the 1916 Standing Liberty quarter, the 1893-S dollar, the 1911-D quarter eagle, and other rarities. For example, take a look through the present sale for these dates and others, and undoubtedly multiple examples of each will be found. However, the 1921 double eagle is too rare to fit the category of multiple opportunities. In fact, the last time we offered an example of this date was in November 2005 (in which we did have multiple examples), and in January 2005 before that. We have only offered this date 34 times in all of our sales dating to January 1993, only two or three examples per year.<BR> This example is a brilliant, frosty, and lustrous representative with a few light surface marks on each side. All of the design elements on each side are nicely detailed. Light yellow-gold color is accented by specks of toning. The overall eye appeal is excellent, despite the grade limiting marks. Census: 13 in 61, 27 finer (7/06).