A.C. Dwyer's Coin Stories

1866-S Gold $20 Double Eagle

Type 1 No Motto

NGC AU-50

PCGS Price Guide: Libery Head $20 (1850-1907)

Total Mintage: approx. 12,000

Overall Rarity Ranking: 12 of 44 coins

Overall Population: approx. 175 to 200 coins

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The Arlington Collection of Type 1 Double Eagles

The Arlington Collection of Type 1 Double Eagles

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About the Coin

The 1866-S No Motto is supposed to be one of the hardest Type 1 double eagles to find with a minimum of contact marks. Most are heavily abraded with deep, detracting contact marks. This coin is definitely one of the nicer ones with no deep marks and minimal abrasions. This coin has very good eye appeal for the grade.

This is the coin that everybody seems to be after nowadays. This is a coin that should not exist. By the time the San Francisco mint got the news from Philadelphia to switch to the new reverse with the In God We Trust motto, they had already released thousands into circulation.

This is one of the Type 1 double eagles where no mint state coins were known to exist as recently as a couple of years ago. But with grading standards slipping, it seems inevitable that a few AU crackouts will eventually get an uncirculated grade.  But even in About Uncirculated (AU) there are only about 20 to 25 examples believed to be in existence.

One interesting note about the 1866-S No Motto double eagle is that it is one of only two Type 1 double eagles not to have been found on the S.S. Republic shipwreck. The other being the ultra rare 1856-O.  This of course was due to the fact that the shipwreck occured in 1865, a few months before the 1866-S No Mottos were struck.

Designer: James B. Longacre

Weight: 33.436 grams

Diameter: approx. 34mm, reeded edge

Composition: 90% gold, 10% copper/silver

PCGS Price Guide: Libery Head $20 (1850-1907)