1896 $20 (1896 Double Eagle) NGC PF62 UCAM. Type 3 Double Eagle. This rare, ultra cameo, proof 1896 Double Eagle has frosted devices and mirrored fields, as expected for a coin with this designation. The needle-sharp strike shows full details of the design on both sides of the coin. Aside from a couple of trivial marks on the obverse that probably keep this coin from a higher mint state grade, the surfaces are clean and completely original.

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 twenty dollar coin was the governments response. They also felt that it would be useful for large commercial transactions and that it would facilitate foreign trade.

Longacres 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 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 double eagle 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 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.

The design change that brought about the Type 3 double eagle was the denomination. It went from TWENTY D. to TWENTY DOLLARS. Like the addition of the motto, it did not cause any major change in the rest of the coins design. William Barber who by then was the Engraver following Longacres death in 1869 made the modification. Later, his son Charles further modified the reverse by smoothing the back of the eagles neck.

All proof Liberty Head double eagles are rare. Their mintages range from 1 or 2 to 158. The 1896 proof coin had an original mintage of 128. Of those there are only 45 to 50 known to exist today in all conditions. In its population report, NGC shows 1, the present coin, in PF62 UCAM with 14 better.