1856-S Double Eagle - 1856-S $20 SS Central America, 17J, Split Serif, PCGS MS61, CAC. In its population report, PCGS shows 17 1856S Split Serif, 17J double eagles certified at the Uncirculated MS61 grade level. At CAC, as of April 2014, there are 3 confirmed in MS61 condition with 1 better. Of all the PCGS and NGC certified 1856-S double eagles, less than 5% have been given CAC stickers.

The wreck of the SS Central America yielded many treasures, one of which is this Mint State 1856-S double eagle that comes with PCGSs box, certificate, and gold tag, which assure its provenance. The coin is tied for second finest known at CAC. Its light and dark yellow-gold colors with hints of rose and orange show its originality. The surfaces are clean with no distracting abrasion marks worthy of individual mention. The strike is wonderful with full details on the centers of the stars, Libertys hair, and the design details of the reverse, especially the eagle. The CAC sticker indicates that the coin is a premium quality piece that fully deserves the assigned grade.

The Type 1 Double Eagle, the largest denomination of all regular United States coinage, was a new design minted from 1850 to 1866. The coin has been called the Liberty Head and the Coronet Head double eagle. Both terms are equally accepted in current numismatic venues. Designed by James B. Longacre, the coin depicts a Greco-Roman style head of Liberty, facing left in profile. She wears a LIBERTY inscribed coronet and is surrounded by thirteen six-pointed stars. The tip of the coronet is very close to Star 7. Most of her hair is combed back and tied with beads in a bun while some flows in curls down her neck up to and just below the back of the truncation. The date is below the portrait, and the whole is circumscribed by dentils at the periphery. The designers initials J.B.L. are on the rear of the truncation below the hair curl. This design is similar to the one used by Longacre on the gold dollars of 1849 to 1854. In 1859 a new master die was introduced that caused slight changes in the design. The initials were moved to the left, away from the hair curls. The star points are closer to the dentils and have a different relationship with them. LIBERTY, corrected from LLBERTY with I over the second L, from 1850 to 1858 was changed to the correct initial lettering.

The reverse design consists of a heraldic eagle facing left. It holds a shield on its breast with arrows and an olive branch in its talons. Elaborate ribbons are on both sides of the shield extending from the top corner down to the eagles 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 eagles 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. On some of the early issues, the A in STATES had a portion of the crossbar missing. Dies were either left alone or fixed by adding a line to patch this defect. Sometimes the engraver remembered to correct this die defect, and sometimes he forgot. During this time, branch mints in New Orleans and San Francisco also made double eagles. The mintmarks O or S were added to the reverse between the tail feathers and the denomination.

Until the discovery of the SS Central America, 1850s double eagles in mint condition were virtually unavailable. The ship, originally called the SS George Law, was a United States mail steamship. In 1857 it sank off the coast of the Carolinas because of a huge hurricane. It was a three-mast, side-wheel steamship that traveled between Panama and New York. The journey took approximately 21 days. In the five years prior to its sinking, it has been estimated that the Central America carried about $150 million worth of gold or one-third of all of the gold mined in California. The ship was 272 feet long and had 578 passengers and crew on board. It also had on board over 35,000 pieces of mail, gold bars, nuggets, dust, and 5,200 newly minted San Francisco gold coins from the West, of which the present coin is one. The loss of the Central America triggered the Panic of 1857, which was caused by bank instability and generally poor economic conditions. In addition to the loss of bullion, many issues of private coiners were lost as passenger gold.