1884-CC $20 (1884-CC Double Eagle) NGC AU58. Type 3 Double Eagle. This almost mint state Carson City 1884-CC Double Eagle has bright mint luster showing in protected areas of both sides. Just a trace of wear on the highest points keeps it from being a mint state coin. The surfaces are extremely clean for the grade with no distractions worthy of individual mention. The strike is strong with full details seen on the centers of the obverse stars, Liberty’s hair, and the design elements of the reverse.

Longacre’s design for the double eagle shows a Liberty head facing left wearing coronet inscribed LIBERTY. Her hair is tightly tied in the back with two loose curls hanging down her neck to the end of the truncation. She is surrounded by thirteen six pointed stars with the date below. Dentils are near the edge on both sides of the coin. The reverse shows a heraldic eagle with elaborate ribbons on both sides of the shield extending from the top corner down to the eagle’s tail feathers. The ribbons are inscribed, on the left E PLURIBUS and UNUM on the right. The ribbons were added to the design to symbolize the denomination since this was the first twenty dollar coin. There is an oval of thirteen stars above the eagle’s head and an arc of rays from wing tip to wing tip behind the upper half of the oval. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA is in an arc above the eagle, and the denomination TWENTY D. is below. The mint mark is between the tail feathers and the N of TWENTY.

The Type 2 coin was made when the motto IN GOD WE TRUST was added to the enlarged oval of stars on the reverse. Type 3 changed the denomination from TWENTY D. to TWENTY DOLLARS. Like the addition of the motto to the reverse of the previous double eagle, it did not cause any major change in the rest of the coin’s design.

In 1884 Democrat, Grover Cleveland became president. He fired all the Republican appointees including the top officials at the Carson City Mint and shut it down. No doubt the mintage for this year was already made prior to the shutdown. A year later it reopened as an assay office. When Republican Benjamin Harrison became president, he fired Cleveland’s appointees and replaced them with Republicans. In 1889 coining operations at Carson City resumed.