1877-CC $20 Gold CC Coin of the Week 4-5-2010

1877-CC $20 Gold Double Eagle

I chose the 1877-CC $20 Double Eagle for this coin of the week for a few reasons. I am a big fan of $20 Liberties, so I think it is great that the CC mint produced these coins. I am not as much of a fan of the $20 Saints though I am sure any CC Saint would have been a huge collectors coin. The 1877 $20 is a design change year as it is the first year of the type 3 $20 gold piece which makes it an intriguing piece.

The obverse design changes were rather subtle. Liberty’s head was still the design but the orientation was shifted. The neck was now at a higher angle allowing for more room for the date, which was placed between the neck and dentils. The new dies created from this hub had some issues so there was some more tweaking in the Spring on 1877. The most noticeable change was the position of the outermost star points with the dentils. There are 1877 double eagles minted from both hubs.

The reverse design had the most obvious changes and is really what made the changes the new type 3. The denomination had previously been expressed as TWENTY D and was changed to read TWENTY DOLLARS. This hub is also a mix of the old heavy motto style and the new light motto. This motto also has the IN GOD WE higher set above TRUST than the previous versions. The E PLURIBUS UNUM is much larger than prior versions and there are also some minor changes to the rays. The method of basining these dies was also changed resulting in complaints from the coiners at 2 of the mints but not Carson City. The coiners complaints ranged from unsatisfactory quality to coins that would not stack. It turned out the coins placed obverse to obverse would rock but coins placed obverse to reverse would stack. This problem seems to only come dies that were prepared with the edges turned to far downward.

In Carson City for the year of 1877 the mint produced 42,565 pieces. This amount was a far cry from the mintages of 397,650 in Philadelphia and 1,735,000 in San Francisco. With its scarce mintage the 1877-CC $20 is a key coin in any grade. It can be found in grades AU and lower but MS examples are much harder to find. Pieces are normally found well struck. PCGS shows 565 I their population and NGC shows 743 in their population.

I don’t own a 1877-CC $20, nor do I have an image of one so I welcome those with images to share.

Nice description of the 1877-CC $20 Double Eagle. Above is the image of the coin that I own. The only thing I can add that once the grade gets to MS the price goes way up too.

PCGS lists present prices as follows,

VF-30 $2,200
XF-40 $2,600
AU-55 $7,000
MS-60 $18,500
MS-62 $47,500

The most recent auction record for the issue has been a PCGS MS-61 coin, which sold for $17,252 in 2005.

John Armonas

John,

For a more recent auction sale result for this date, please check out the Auction Prices Realized section on this C4OA Web site.

Rusty

Bluevette..

Very informative article. Thanks...

I too love those big gold wheels!

Belay Off

With less than one thousand of these in existence, any problem free example is a treasure.

The AU 55 pictured in your posting looks mighty nice. Is this one of your coins John? If so, how long have you had it?

Belay Off

This coin is one of the most recent purchases. It was bought in 2009 for $6,575. I am trying slowly to complete the 18 coin set of CC Double Eagles in XF-40 or better (The Poor Man's Set).Need six more, however those are the tough ones not only because of the price but very few are available for sale.In my opinion, Double Eagles are the
best coins ever minted by USA mints. The clad coins just dont't have much appeal.


John Armonas