Gem
1907 High Relief $20 Flat Rim PCGS MS65 - $48,500. Click on Coin Image to
enlarge
Gem
surfaces. Augustus St. Gaudens Masterpiece. The example
offered is nothing short of breathtaking and is just
a hint away from full gem mint condition. The gleaming
satin surfaces are immaculate and silky. The strike
is superb and as one would expect for the issue the
devices virtually leap off of the coin. This is a highly
desirable and especially choice High Relief Double Eagle
that is destined to instantly become the focal point
of a significant collection or numismatic investment
portfolio.
Please contact
me by email
or telephone 1-941-291-2156
to reserve this great coin.
1907 $20 Saint-Gaudens,
High Relief, Roman Numerals (MCMVII). It was the intention
of President Theodore Roosevelt, who hand-selected Saint-Gaudens
to redesign the $20 gold piece, that our coinage should
receive a face lift and be elevated to the level of
artistry achieved by the ancient Greeks. He believed
that coinage was reflective of the society that produced
it and wanted designs befitting our status as a major
world power and leading democracy. America’s largest
circulating denomination coin, the gold double eagle,
was to be the centerpiece of this renaissance. Saint-Gaudens’
rendering of Lady Liberty on the obverse and a flying
eagle on the reverse certainly achieved the desired
result.
Though hailed as an
aesthetic triumph at the time, the High Relief Double
Eagle was quickly deemed impractical for circulating
coinage due to problems stacking the coins as well as
the multiple strikes needed to produce them. After minting
just 12,367 pieces (inclusive of both Wire Rim and Flat
Rim varieties) the relief was lowered and the date modified
to Arabic numerals. Some 361,667 of this latter type
were then minted in 1907.
The Flat Rim variety,
as seen here, is considerably scarcer than its Wire
Rim counterpart. The Flat Rim was not initially planned
but in fact was the solution to a production problem
encountered at the Mint. The first pieces struck in
1907 possessed a fin of metal on the rim produced by
a tiny bit of gold squeezing between the die and the
collar during the multiple blows required to strike
the coin. Mint officials believed it to be both aesthetically
inferior and legally problematic since the wire edge
quickly wore away leaving the coin under weight. The
design was modified in December and it is estimated
that roughly one third of the total High Relief mintage
is of this variety.