1907 $20 High Relief (1907 High Relief) Wire Edge, PCGS MS64. This lovely, high relief Saint-Gaudens double eagle shimmers with muted mint luster. Because of the luster, the figure of Liberty appears to be striding out of the darkness into the light. For the grade, the coins surfaces are mark free and original. They are a delicate matte texture that is grainy as struck. The strike is above average with Libertys left knee showing none of the often seen flatness, and the Capitol building showing details.

There are two varieties, the flat rim and the knife-rim or wire rim, which are also called the flat edge and the wire edge, of which the present coin is an example. The wire edge is actually a rim or flange around half or more of one or both sides of the coin. It was made when metal was squeezed between the collar and the die. Most researchers believe that the flange was made unintentionally since it caused problems in ejecting the coins as they were struck. The jealous Engraver, Charles Barber, used this characteristic as one of the reasons to remake the coin with lower relief, and he did so with the date in Arabic numbers on later 1907 coins.

President Theodore Roosevelt felt that the contemporary coinage was atrociously hideous. He asked his friend Augusts Saint-Gaudens, who agreed with Roosevelt, to redesign our coinage in the ancient style. Both felt that the beauty and dignity of the coinage of ancient Greece would be an appropriate model. Consequently, Saint-Gaudens chose to use high relief for his design for both the eagle and double eagle. He was opposed Charles Barber on the grounds that high relief coins were impractical for commerce and banking. Unfortunately Saint-Gaudens had stomach cancer and never lived to see his beautiful creation in production. It fell to his student and assistant, Henry Hering to complete the project. However, Barber objected and placed obstacles wherever he could.

Saint-Gaudens took the setting for the obverse from his sculpture, Victory. The coin depicts Liberty striding toward the viewer as if she is ready to step out of the coin. She is holding an olive branch in her left hand and a torch in her right, lighting the way to freedom as dawn rises over the Capitol. She is wearing a loose, flowing gown that exposes her arms and her left knee and leg, and her long hair flows to the side. The Capitol building is shown at the lower left. Behind her are rays of the sunburst. The date in Roman numerals is on the right, below the olive branch. LIBERTY is in an arc at the top border. Forty-six stars surround the edge of the coin, one for each state in the Union at the time. On the reverse, Saint-Gaudens placed a large, majestic eagle viewed from slightly below, soaring to the left above the rising sun. It is reminiscent of Gobrechts flying eagle. Above the eagle in two arcs are the inscriptions UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and the denomination. All of the words in the legends on the reverse are separated by dots. Beneath the eagle is the rising sun with stylized rays, some of which touch the opposite rim. Saint-Gaudens had placed the motto E PLURIBUS UNUM on the coins edge thus reducing the clutter on the obverse and reverse and reinforcing their clean, open look.

The motto IN GOD WE TRUST was deliberately left off of the coin. Roosevelt felt that a coin was no place for the name of God. It was something that might get stepped on or used for immoral purposes such as drinking, gambling or prostitution.
Augustus Saint-Gaudens was born in Ireland, the son of a shoemaker. He became one of Americas most successful sculptors of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In 1848, his family moved from Dublin to New York before his first birthday. When he was thirteen, Saint-Gaudens left school and became an apprentice to a cameo cutter. He also took classes at Cooper Union and the National Academy of Design. When he was nineteen, he moved to Europe where he studied classical art and architecture.

His first commission was a statue of Admiral Farragut that is still in Madison Square Park in New York. By the 1890s Saint-Gaudens had produced his statues of Diana and Abraham Lincoln, both considered some of his greatest works. He also created works such as the Robert Gould Shaw Memorial on Boston Common and the equestrian monument to Civil War general John A. Logan in Chicago. He became part of a group of new artists and architects and worked for an architectural firm for whom he produced a group of monuments and decorative sculpture. Throughout his career, he worked with architects creating works that were designed specifically for the sites they were building. At the entrance to New Yorks Central Park is his bronze statue of General Sherman led by Victory, the inspiration for the current coin. It took him eleven years to complete this project. According to the art historian Henry J. Duffy, his work engaged the audience in a more immediate way than any other American sculpture at the time. While many of the artists works were in public places such as on buildings and in parks and museums, more people were affected by his coinage designs for the eagle and double eagle.

When President Roosevelt first saw the design, he knew that his friend had created a masterpiece that would be admired by all. What he did not know, however, was that a quarter-century later, his cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, would confiscate all privately-owned gold, and many of these beautiful coins would be melted into gold bars. Who knows how many of these works of art were melted into bullion? Clearly this presidential order was one of the great ironies of the twentieth century.

The High Relief double eagle is a one-year issue, and it is essential for any collector who wants to complete a type set of United States or gold coins. It is even on the I have to have one list of collectors who are not particularly interested in gold coins. Examples in almost all grades are available; however, demand is constant for all conditions.