1904 Double Eagle - 1904 $20 PCGS MS66. This Premium Gem Uncirculated 1904 Double Eagle is tied for second finest at both PCGS and NGC. Bright mint luster dances on its eye-appealing surfaces, which approach perfection with few abrasion marks visible. The strike of this 1904 Double Eagle is sharp with full details seen on the centers of the stars, Libertys hair, and the design details of the reverse.

James B. Longacre designed the double eagle. It 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 mint mark is between the tail feathers and the N of TWENTY.

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 IN GOD WE TRUST 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.

During this time period there were extremes of coin mintage. There were several years that saw double eagle mintages of over a million and even two million coins. However, the largest was 1904, the present coin, which had a mintage of 6,256,699. Many of these were saved in European banks and are available in quantity today. For this reason the coin is most sought after by type collectors.

In their population reports, NGC and PCGS have graded 3 finer than the present piece.