Excessively
Rare Gem Proof 1902 Liberty Gold $20 NGC PR65+*
- $97,000. Click on Coin Image to
enlarge
FINEST
GRADED PROOF DOUBLE EAGLE! *GEM QUALITY 1902 Type 3
Double Eagle. In the NGC population report, this is
the only Proof 1902 Double Eagle in PR65+*!
This rare, Gem
Proof 1902 Double Eagle is tied for the finest at NGC.
This is an unbelievable opportunity for the double eagle
specialist, the investor, the collector of finest known
and ultra rare gold coins.
Please contact
me by email
or telephone 1-941-291-2156
to reserve this great coin.
James Barton Longacre
designed the pattern for the double eagle in 1849. It
was produced because of the huge amount of gold that
came into the Mint from California. With the discovery
of gold at Sutter’s Mill in January 1848, the
California gold rush began. It led to an influx of miners
and others into the area. The vast quantity of gold
produced led to a need for a standard form of exchange.
The twenty dollar coin was the government’s response.
They also felt that it would be useful for large commercial
transactions and that it would facilitate foreign trade.
Longacre’s design
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 eagle’s
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 eagle’s 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 design change that
brought about the Type 3 coin was the denomination.
It went from TWENTY D. to TWENTY DOLLARS. Like the addition
of the motto to the reverse of the previous double eagle,
it did not cause any major change in the rest of the
coin’s design. William Barber who by then was
the Engraver following Longacre’s death in 1869
made the modification. Later, his son Charles further
modified the reverse by smoothing the back of the eagle’s
neck. Many of the twentieth century double eagle coins
have the new reverse, but some were made from left over
hubs and have the 1899 reverse.
