1854-S $20 Closed A Liberty Head Double Eagle PCGS AU50 (CAC)

Here is an important relic from the very first year of the San Francisco Mint. This dramatic piece would be a great coin to add to the collection of a specialist in San Francisco gold issues. Writes Doug Winter, “The 1854-S is a numismatically significant issue due to its status as the first double eagle struck at the recently-opened San Francisco mint …. The 1854-S is one of the better-struck Type One double eagles from this mint. The obverse is well-detailed with sharp hair curls, stars, and denticles.”

PCGS has graded 26 examples as AU50 with 111 finer. Collectors Universe gives this issue a price of $17,500.00 in AU50. In CAC there are 7 in AU50 with 20 finer. CAC prices this issue at $18,000.00 in AU50.

The First San Francisco Mint building (taken in 2012), a California Historical Landmark. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

It was in March of 1854 that the San Francisco Mint began coinage operations at 608-610 Commercial Street, which was previously occupied by the leading private coinage firm of Moffat & Company. It was not a smooth beginning. Due to a shortage of parting acids, the mint had to limit mintage of smaller gold denominations and focus on the high-demand eagle and double eagle. The first year San Francisco Mint double eagle saw a mintage of 141,468, and those coins were distributed promptly into the specie-hungry California and West Coast economies. Therefore, many surviving examples display signs of circulation.