1862 DDO G$1 Gold Dollar NGC MS67 FS-001 - US Rare Coin Investments

1862 Gold Dollar (1862 G$1) DDO - FS-001 NGC MS67. Except for type sets and the seldom seen date sets, variety collecting of the gold dollar series is, as of yet, not nearly as popular as collecting the varieties of Early Half Eagles or Early Eagles and even in those cases, the pricing is somewhat in their infancy. As such, the current collector and investor now have excellent opportunities to start collecting a specialized series priced relatively low, with extremely low mintages and even lower survival rates, and a number of very interesting die varieties. Besides the doubled dies, repunched dates and other varieties already known, there are almost certainly new varieties out there, waiting to be cherrypicked in dealers inventories and collections, which will prove to be extremely scarce and valuable in the long run.

The coin that we offer here, is not only one of the finest known for the date, it also has a very interesting and strong doubled die obverse. The doubling is very prominent and among the strongest in the full spectrum of American gold coinage. Not discovered until 1975, this variety has proven to be extremely scarce in any condition, seldom offered at the public market. Although not documented in any literature, the reverse is doubled as well, with doubling plainly visible on the devices.

Other than being a very scarce to rare variety (it was considered by Breen to be very rare), it is also among the finest known for the date, which was the last gold dollar with a mintage of over 1 million (1,361,355 pieces struck for circulation). Many pieces have survived, but mostly in circulated or lower uncirculated grades, with anything above the gem level very scarce to rare. Less than a dozen pieces are known in MS-67, such as the present piece, and only a single NGC MS-68 example is known to exist. We can safely say that the coin offered here is the absolute finest known for the variety, with only 3 to 5 competitors at the uncirculated level. It is also near the top of the condition census for the whole issue.

Gold dollars of this date are found in various forms of preservation. Besides the pieces that have been cleaned, dipped or otherwise mistreated after their mintage, there are also a large number of pieces which had problems when struck. These include planchet problems, weak strikes and examples struck from worn dies showing incomplete designs. As such, many pieces are ruled out for the higher grades, unlike the present coin

Nearly flawless, this is a wonderful and original coin. Sharply struck, all the design elements, and the important doubling are clear. The surfaces have toned to a light yellow-orange golden tone, which looks very attractive in hand. Die lines, as struck and a common feature on these coins, can be seen on both sides, with full luster booming. In all, this is a wonderful and rare coin for the (future) specialist of Gold dollars, or to anyone seeking a high grade example of a special type set of American gold coinage.