1907 High Relief Wire Rim - 1907 $20 High Relief, Wire Rim, NGC AU53. This eye-appealing Almost Uncirculated 1907 High Relief Double Eagle has the look of a near-Gem coin. The coin is fully lustrous with the grainy texture associated with the issue.  For the grade, it has clean surfaces with few abrasion marks or other distractions. The light and dark yellow gold colors attest to its originality. The strike is strong with full details on Libertys left knee, the Capitol building, and the feathers at the top of the eagle. 

The High Relief Saint-Gaudens double eagles have long been considered Americas most beautiful coin; however, even the low relief coins that Charles Barber modified have had lasting beauty and appeal. The modern Gold American Eagle bullion program uses a modification of the Saint-Gaudens double eagle low relief design, and it is exceedingly popular with investors as a replacement for the Union of South Africa Krugerrand.

The coinage began in 1907 with the Ultra High Relief pattern coins. These are so rare that they are virtually unavailable today with 15 certified by both major grading services, and this number does not account for resubmissions and crossovers. The High Relief coins followed in the same year. With a mintage of 12,367, they are available to collectors and investors today. Some of these double eagle coins have a wire rim and others a flat rim. The former, of which the present piece is an example, is caused by extra metal being squeezed out between the dies and collar causing a rim or flange around most of one or both sides. The coins also have a lettered edge. E PLURIBUS UNUM is on the edge with stars dividing the words.

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. It took him eleven years to complete this project.

Saint-Gaudens moved to his summer home in Cornish, New Hampshire in 1900. Joined there by a community of artists, Saint-Gaudens spent his final years. He died of stomach cancer in 1907 just after he created the beautiful high relief models for the eagle and double eagle coins at the request of President Theodore Roosevelt, for whom he had earlier designed the second inaugural medal.

In its population report, NGC shows 9 1907 High Relief Wire Rim double eagles certified at the AU53 grade level.