1871 $20 MS(PCGS#8960)

Summer 2026 Global Showcase Auction U.S. Coins

Auctioneer

Stack's Bowers

Lot Number

2505

Grade

MS63

Price

53,680

Lot Description

A coin that is the exception, not the rule, for quality and eye appeal in a Mint State 1871 double eagle. The portrait is beautifully struck with excellent details, the stars are sharp including the centrils, and the dentils are well defined. The reverse is needle sharp, as well. Both sides are richly lustrous with warm orange-rose color and relatively few scattered marks. Certainly one of the finest we have ever seen - quite a statement considering that we have probably handled more rare gold coins than any other auction firm in history.<p>The mintage for this issue was tiny for the era with just 80,120 double eagles produced for commercial use. This is the lowest Philadelphia Mint production tally of any date after 1859 and prior to 1881. Many lightly worn examples of this issue were exported in later banking transactions, only to return to America in the mid to late 20th century, though this repatriation brought back very few high grade Uncirculated specimens. David Akers noted in his 1982 double eagle book that only five Uncirculated 1871 $20s had been identified from the 443 auction catalogs that he researched over a 60-year span, with some of the same coins reappearing at later auctions. He personally had ever seen only three Uncirculated 1871 coins. Q. David Bowers' estimates, published by Whitman in 2004 and in continual revision, are based on observations, previous listings, and the like, not on population reports. He suggests just eight to a dozen or so examples of this issue qualify as Mint State, a range we would increase to 20 to 30 in the current market, but still with most around the MS-60 end of the grading scale and with many surface marks. The reality is that the 1871 double eagle offered here is a very rare coin - an extraordinary condition rarity CC#4 for the issue at PCGS behind only three other grading events in MS-64, MS-64 and MS-63+.