1907 High Relief (1907 $20 High Relief) PCGS MS64, Wire Edge. Mint luster flashes on the obverse from the top of Libertys head, shoulders, and arms to the stars beneath her right foot. On the reverse the top of the eagles wings, head, neck, and talon are illuminated by bright luster. A couple of tiny contact marks are hidden in the folds of the gown and in the rays of the sun on the reverse, in keeping with the grade. The strike is strong on the obverse but somewhat weaker on the suns rays on the reverse.

Designed by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, the double eagle shows Liberty standing on a rocky summit, her left foot planted on a rock that is higher than the rest. The wind blows her dress and hair. Stylized sun rays are seen behind her full-length figure. She holds a large torch in her right hand and an olive branch in her left. Above her is LIBERTY. The date, in Roman numerals, is to the right of her left ankle, and a small Capitol building is to the left of her right foot. Except for the bottom right, forty-six small stars encircle the design, one for each state in the union at the time. E PLURIBUS UNUM with its words separated by stars is on the edge of the coin. The reverse shows a large eagle in flight to the left. It is reminiscent of Gobrechts flying eagle. Beneath the eagle is the rising sun with stylized rays, some of which touch the opposite rim. The inscription UNITED STATES OF AMERICA is in an arc at the top. Just beneath the legend is the denomination TWENTY DOLLARS. All of the words in the legends on the reverse are separated by dots.

The coinage of Saint-Gaudens double eagles began in 1907 with the Ultra High Relief pattern coins. These are so rare that they are virtually unavailable today. The present coin, a High Relief, followed in the same year. It has a wire rim also called a wire edge or knife rim caused by extra metal being squeezed out between the dies and collar causing a rim or flange around it. Most researchers believe that the flange was made unintentionally since it caused problems in ejecting the coins as they were struck. Charles Barber used this characteristic as a reason to remake the coin with lower relief, and he did so with the date in Arabic numbers on later 1907 coins.

In 1905 President Theodore Roosevelt visited the Smithsonian Institution and saw an exhibit of ancient Greek coins. He admired their high relief and bold designs and prevailed upon his friend Augustus Saint-Gaudens who was in failing health to design new gold coinage for the United States. Saint-Gaudens, who agreed with Roosevelt that the countrys coinage was hideous, redesigned the eagle and double eagle coins.

Saint-Gaudens deliberately left off the motto IN GOD WE TRUST at the request of President Roosevelt, a religious man who felt that it was blasphemous to have Gods name inscribed on a coin. He did not wish the name of Lord on coins to be dropped and stepped on or passed around brothels, saloons, gambling halls or used for other immoral purposes.

When Roosevelt saw the first double eagles, he knew that Saint-Gaudens had created a masterpiece. What he could not have known was that, in a supreme irony, his cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt would recall all privately owned gold including many of the Saint-Gaudens twenties.