1907 $20 High Relief (1907 Saint Gaudens High Relief Double Eagle) Wire Edge, PCGS MS62. This mint state, high relief Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle shimmers with bright mint luster. A couple of marks hidden the drapery and the feathers along with some wispy marks in the field keep this coin from a higher mint state grade. The strike is full on the obverse and slightly softer on the lower reverse especially the suns rays in the center and right side.

Designed in high relief 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. 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 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.

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.

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.