LIBERTY HEAD
(WITH MOTTO ON REVERSE) TWENTY DOLLARS
TYPE II DOUBLE EAGLE (1866-1876)
"TWENTY
D." ON REVERSE (1866-1876)
Longacre’s Liberty
Head Type 2 Double Eagle (1866-1876): The motto IN GOD
WE TRUST was added to the original Double
Eagles by enlarging the oval of stars above the eagle’s
head and placing the motto in it. This modification did
not require a major alteration of the Double
Eagles design as was the case with adding the
motto to the lower denominations.It was made at the behest
of Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of Treasury and Congress because
of pressure brought about by the Reverend M.R. Watkinson
of Ridleyville, Pennsylvania.
Despite this new coinage
act, 120,000 1866 San Francisco double eagle coins were
minted without the new motto. Obviously older Double
Eagles dies were in use in the branch mint and were
used for this date. All branch mint Double
Eagle dies were made in Philadelphia, and it is reasonable
to assume that the trip was too long for the new dies to
reach San Francisco on time.
Originally all of the United
States coinage was secular. However, in the first sixty
or so years of the United States’ existence, religious
life became more important to the populace. By 1860, twenty-three
percent of the population belonged to a church or had some
kind of religious affiliation. Groups such as the National
Reform Association wanted to amend the Constitution to acknowledge
the Lord Jesus Christ as the source of all power and authority
in government. The amendment was unsuccessful; however,
the sentiment to bring religion into government remained
strong. President Abraham Lincoln chose James Pollock to
be the Mint Director in 1861. He served until 1867. Pollock
was in favor of the idea that the nation depended on the
will of God. Reverend Watkinson was the first person who
actually addressed this “need.” He believed
that adding the name of God to our coinage would, “…relieve
us from the ignominy of heathenism…[and] place us
openly under the divine protection….” The Coinage
Act of 1865 created the authority to place the motto on
all coins. In 1866 it was placed on the half eagle, the
eagle and the double eagle as well as on silver coinage
and the shield nickel. It wasn’t until the newly designed
Double Eagle of Augusts Saint-Gaudens
that the motto was briefly omitted in 1907 because of President
Theodore Roosevelt’s objection to it.
The business strike mintage
of the Type 2 Double
Eagle was 16,160,758. The year with the largest mintage
was 1873 with 1,709,825, although there were two varieties
that year an open and closed 3. The lowest mintage was the
1873-CC with 22,410.
