1861-O $20 (1861-O Double Eagle) PCGS XF45 CAC. Type 1 Double Eagle. This rare, Civil War dated, historic New Orleans 1861-O Double Dagle has isolated luster within is protected areas. The beads of the coronet clearly show as well as the motto E PLURIBUS UNUM. The coin has no marks that are unusual or distracting for the grade. Many branch mint coins of this series are weakly struck; however, aside from the base of the date (see below), this piece is unusually strong, especially so on the reverse.

The 1861-O double eagle is the last Type 1 from the New Orleans mint. A total of 17,741 pieces were struck. Of that number 5,000 were made for the Union, 9,750 for the State of Louisiana, and after the CSA took over the branch mint 2,991 were made for the Confederacy. With certainty they cannot be told apart; however, researchers believe that those with the greatest weakness at the base of the date, such as the present piece, were made for the Confederacy.

Authorized to produce gold and silver, the New Orleans Mint struck quarter eagles and dimes in 1839. It operated from 1838 to 1909. In that time period 427 million silver and gold coins with the O mintmark were coined. By the mid 1850s denominations made in New Orleans included three cent silver pieces, half dimes, dimes, quarters, half dollars, silver dollars, gold dollars, quarter eagles, three dollar pieces, half eagles, eagles, and double eagles. The first deposit was of Mexican dollars which amounted to more than 32,400 dollars. The first coins struck were Liberty Seated Dimes. Each year between the beginning of August and the end of November, the mint closed because of the annual outbreak of yellow fever.

During the Civil War the New Orleans Mint was held by the Confederacy and used to produce its coinage. It was the only mint to produce uniquely identifiable Confederate coinage, the 1861 half dollar with Confederate reverse and the copper-nickel cent of the same year. In 1862 the New Orleans Mint was captured by United States Marines commanded by Commodore David Farragut and closed as a minting facility. The mint reopened as an assay office in 1876. Three years later federal coinage resumed. The New Orleans Mint was the only branch mint in the South to continue coinage after the Civil War. It lasted until 1909 when it was displaced by the mints in Denver and San Francisco. From then until 1931, the New Orleans Mint building was used as an assay office. It was then converted to a prison for Prohibition violators. In 1934 the prison was closed, and the Coast Guard took possession of the building. In 1979 it was transferred to Louisiana to be used as a museum.

James B. Longacre designed the double eagle. He was a Pennsylvania born banknote engraver. In 1819 he worked on his own as an engraver and made metal plates for bank notes and book illustrations. His works included one on stage personalities and another on the signers of the Declaration of Independence. In 1844, through the influence of John C. Calhoun, Longacre was made Chief Engraver at the Mint, where he succeeded the late Christian Gobrecht. Longacres experience was limited, but he was a talented artist. By 1849 he was able to create the gold dollar and double eagle, the design of which lasted until well into the twentieth century. One of Longacres associates, Chief Coiner Franklin Peale, opposed Longacres appointment and became an obstructionist. Peale ran a lucrative and illicit, private medal-making business using Mint facilities, and he felt that Longacres presence would jeopardize it. In 1854 Peale was fired by President Franklin Pearce, and Longacres life became easier. Longacre remained Chief Engraver until his death in 1869. Coins from Longacres estate were auctioned in 1870. They included patterns, coins of Chile, and regularly issued coins.

The 1861-O double eagle is extremely scarce, especially in higher grades. With an original mintage of 17,741, it is by far the lowest Civil War mintage of the series. In its population report as of March 2011, CAC has confirmed 2 in XF45 with 3 better.