1866-S $20 Motto (1866-S Double Eagle With Motto) PCGS MS60. This rare, buttery 1866-S Double Eagle is filled with vivacious mint luster. There are a couple of small marks on Libertys cheek and on the shield. There is also a scuff mark between stars 2 and 3 and Libertys profile. Despite these marks, all of which are in keeping with the grade, the coin has an overall look of one or two points higher. The strike shows a strong reverse with slight central obverse weakness. James B. Longacre designed the double eagle. It shows a profile of 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 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. The mint mark is between the tail feathers and the right upright of the N of TWENTY.

The motto IN GOD WE TRUST was added to the original coin by enlarging the oval of stars above the eagles head and placing the motto in it. This modification did not require a major alteration of the design as was the case with adding the motto to the lower denominations. It was made at the behest of Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of Treasury and Congress because of pressure brought about by the Reverend M.R. Watkinson of Ridleyville, Pennsylvania.

Despite the new coinage act, 120,000 1866 San Francisco double eagle coins were minted without the new motto. Obviously older dies were in use in the branch mint and were used for this date. All branch mint double eagle dies were made in Philadelphia, and it is reasonable to assume that the trip was too long for the new dies to reach San Francisco on time. The present coin was made from dies that were received after the initial 1866-S coins were struck without the motto.

Originally all of the United States coinage was secular. However, in the first sixty or so years of the United States existence, religious life became more important to the populace. By 1860, twenty-three percent of the population belonged to a church or had some kind of religious affiliation. Groups such as the National Reform Association wanted to amend the Constitution to acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ as the source of all power and authority in government. The amendment was unsuccessful; however, the sentiment to bring religion into government remained strong. President Abraham Lincoln chose James Pollock to be the Mint Director in 1861. He served until 1867. Pollock was in favor of the idea that the nation depended on the will of God. Reverend Watkinson was the first person who actually addressed this need. He believed that adding the name of God to our coinage would, relieve us from the ignominy of heathenism[and] place us openly under the divine protection. The Coinage Act of 1865 created the authority to place the motto on all coins. In 1866 it was placed on the half eagle, the eagle and the double eagle as well as on silver coinage and the shield nickel. It wasnt until the newly designed double eagles of Augusts Saint-Gaudens that the motto was briefly omitted in 1907 because of President Theodore Roosevelts objection to it.

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 Sutters 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 double eagle was the governments response. They also felt that the new denomination would be useful for large commercial transactions and that it would facilitate foreign trade.

The 1866-S With Motto double eagle had an original mintage of 842,250. In its population report, PCGS shows 9 in MS60 with 16 better.