1874 $20 (1874 Double Eagle) Type 2, PCGS MS62. Here is a highly lustrous, mint state, Type 2 Double Eagle. Light surface abrasion and a couple of small bag marks on Libertys cheek and neck keep this coin from a higher mint state grade. The strike is extremely bold on both sides with every detail popping and easily apparent. The coin is a Type 2 because the motto IN GOD WE TRUST has been added to the oval of stars on the reverse. This addition was done in response to public pressure to have the name of God on our coins brought about by the Reverend Mark Richards Watkinson of Ridleyville, Pennsylvania. Watkinson actually suggested that the motto be God, Liberty, Law. Mint director James Pollock gave Treasury Secretary Salmon Chase several choices: "Our Trust Is In God," "Our God And Our Country," "God And Our Country," and "God Our Trust." Instead Chase chose In God We Trust, which was then used on some coins including the double eagle.

The coin, designed by James Barton Longacre, shows Liberty facing left wearing a coronet inscribed LIBERTY, with her hair tied tightly in the back. Two curls flow down the back and side of her neck. She is surrounded by thirteen stars with the dated 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 double eagle design. There is an oval of thirteen stars above the eagles head, into which the motto was inserted, 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.

Most of the bullion for this date came from obsolete gold dollars and quarter eagles. The 1874 double eagle had an original mintage of 366,780. In its population report PCGS shows 23 in MS62 with only 6 better.