1902 Liberty Gold Double Eagle $20 NGC PR65+

FINEST GRADED PROOF DOUBLE EAGLE! *GEM QUALITY 1902 Type 3 Double Eagle. In the NGC population report, this is the only Proof 1902 Double Eagle in PR65+*!

This rare, Gem Proof 1902 Double Eagle is tied for the finest at NGC. This is an unbelievable opportunity for the double eagle specialist, the investor, the collector of finest known and ultra rare gold coins.

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 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 design change that brought about the Type 3 coin was the denomination. It went from TWENTY D. to TWENTY DOLLARS. Like the addition of the motto to the reverse of the previous double eagle, 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. Many of the twentieth century double eagle coins have the new reverse, but some were made from left over hubs and have the 1899 reverse.