1904 Double Eagle Mint Error - 1904 $20 Double Struck Mint Error, PCGS MS61. In collar double struck coins are rare and double struck twenty dollar error coins are even rarer. How extremely rare the combination is! This Mint State 1904 error double eagle is no doubt in a category by itself. The coin is well struck with full details on the centers of the stars, Libertys hair, and the design details of the reverse, especially the eagle. It is a mixture of yellow and greenish gold; the presence of these colors shows the coins originality. The surfaces are clean for the grade with no notable abrasion marks or other distractions. The obverse doubling is close but evident at the top of Libertys coronet, her hair, the tops of the stars, and the date. There is also doubling on the reverse at DOLLARS. The scuff mark on the right center of the shield is on the holder not the coin. 

An in collar double strike takes place when the coin is struck a second time while still in the collar with only slight movement of the coin or the dies between strikes. The result is that the struck coin has a slightly overlapping second strike as seen in the present coin. 

James Barton Longacre, designer of the double eagle, was born in Pennsylvania in 1794. When he finished his apprenticeship in Philadelphia as a bookseller and a banknote engraver, he worked on his own as an engraver of book illustrations and bank notes. His works included one on the signers of the Declaration of Independence and another on stage personalities. In 1830, Longacre began a series of biographies of famous men in the military and the political arena. In 1834 the result of this series became the National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans that was published in four volumes. Longacre and those who worked with him became famous because of this work. In 1844 Longacre came to work at the Mint. He was opposed by Franklin Peale, the Chief Coiner. Peale was probably responsible for some blundered dies that Longacre was criticized for making. Peal was involved in a private, illegal medal manufacturing business using Mint facilities. He was concerned that this new political appointee would interfere with his business, and he resisted Longacres appointment as Chief Engraver. Finally in 1854, Peale was fired by President Franklin Pearce. Longacre flourished in his position and was responsible for creating many new designs including the Indian Head cent, the two-cent piece, the Shield nickel, the Liberty Head gold dollar, the Indian Princess gold dollar, the three-dollar gold piece, and the Liberty Head double eagle. 

Longacres design for the double eagle 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 motto IN GOD WE TRUST was added to the original double eagle 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.

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. Although placed on the two cent coin in 1864, the Coinage Act of 1865 created the authority to add the motto IN GOD WE TRUST to 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 eagle and double eagle of Augusts Saint-Gaudens that the motto was briefly omitted in 1907 and 1908 because of President Theodore Roosevelts objection to it.

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 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 of the double eagle 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.

The grading services do not publish population numbers for error coins; however, there is no doubt that this 1904 double struck double eagle is unique.