LIBERTY HEAD (WITH
MOTTO ON REVERSE) TWENTY DOLLARS
TYPE III DOUBLE EAGLE (1877-1907)
"TWENTY DOLLARS"
ON REVERSE (1877-1907)
Longacre’s Liberty Head
Type 3 Double Eagle (1877-1907): The design change
that brought about the Type
3 Double Eagles was the denomination. It went from TWENTY
D. to TWENTY DOLLARS. Like the addition of the motto to
the reverse of the previous Double
Eagles, it did not cause any major change in the rest
of the coin’s design. William Barber who by then was
the Engraver following Longacre’s death in 1869 made
the modification. Later, his son Charles further modified
the reverse of the Double
Eagle by smoothing the back of the eagle’s neck.
Many of the twentieth century Double
Eagle Coins have the new reverse, but some were made
from left over hubs and have the 1899 reverse.
During this time period there were extremes
of coin mintage. There were several years that saw Double
Eagles mintages of over a million and even two million
coins. However, the largest was 1904, which had a mintage
of 6,256,699. Many of these were saved in European banks
and are available in quantity today. On the other hand,
there were great rarities created by low mintages. In 1886
there were only 1,000 coins minted, and that was the third
lowest. The years 1885 and 1882 saw 751 and 571 respectively.
Of course authentication is required for these rarities
because the S mint mark could easily be removed from the
common dates of 1885-S and the 1882-S.
Another great rarity in the series is the
1879-O Double Eagle.
It is the only New Orleans Mint coin of this design type
and the only post Civil
War O mint Double Eagle. They are usually found either
heavily bag marked or in low grades and are virtually unobtainable
in uncirculated condition.
