1861 Double Eagle SS Republic - 1861 $20 SS Republic NGC MS61. This Mint State Civil War dated shipwrecked 1861 Double Eagle is highly lustrous on both sides. The coin has a sharp strike showing full details on the centers of the stars and the design elements of the reverse. No wear is seen on this mint state piece, and the surfaces are original and, for the grade, free of individual distractions. Just some light abrasion marks, mainly on the obverse, keep this coin from a higher mint state level.

In 1864, the S.S. Republic, that had been a blockade runner for the South and later Union Admiral Farraguts flagship, resumed transporting passengers and cargo from New York to New Orleans. The next year she sank in a hurricane off the coast of Savannah. In 2003, the Odyssey Republic Expedition, after twelve years of searching, discovered and began the recovery of the ships treasure. The cargo had been untouched and remained for 138 years approximately 100 miles off the coast of Georgia. Lost Gold of the Republic, a film produced by National Graphic, documents the discovery and recovery. The coins recovered from the S.S. Republic are labeled as such by NGC and its affiliate NCS not only to note the historic significance of the coin, but also to indicate that these coins have been professionally conserved. The blue NGC tag was used exclusively for coins from the Republic.

James B. Longacre designed the double eagle. It 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 eagles 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 eagles 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 double eagle was minted in Philadelphia, New Orleans, and San Francisco. In total there were 23,526,676 business strikes. The largest mintage was in 1851 with 2,087,155, and the lowest was 1856-O with 2,250 (not counting the single pattern coin that was struck in 1849).

In 1844 Longacre was appointed Mint Engraver through the influence of Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina. After overcoming opposition by the Chief Coiner, Franklin Peale, who was fearful that the new Engraver would interfere with his illegal medal manufacturing business using the Mint facilities, Longacre did well. He was responsible for creating many new designs including the Indian Head cent, the two cent piece, the Shield nickel, the Liberty Head gold dollar, the Indian Princess gold dollar, the three dollar gold piece, and the Liberty Head double eagle.