1908-S Saint Gaudens Double Eagle - 1908-S $20 Saint Gaudens NGC AU55. This eye-appealing, Western branch mint 1908-S double eagle has an above average strike with some remaining mint luster in protected areas. Full details are found on the Capitol building and its immediate area as well as the eagles feathers. The surfaces are original and clean for the grade with no notable abrasion marks or other distractions. Just a touch of wear on the highest points keeps this lovely piece from a Mint State grade.

The San Francisco Mint opened in 1854 because of the need to coin gold resulting from the California Gold Rush. In the West there was an abundance of gold bullion, nuggets and dust; however, there was also an acute shortage of circulating coinage. Congress authorized this mint to relieve the shortage and coin silver and gold and because transportation of bullion to Philadelphia was time consuming and hazardous. Because of its proximity to the Gold Rush area, San Francisco was chosen as the site of the new mint.  In 1874 it moved into a new building called the Old United States Mint or the Granite Lady. It is one of the few structures that survived the earthquake of 1906. It remained in service as a mint until 1938, when the present facility opened.

In its first year of operation the Mint made four million dollars in gold coins from bullion. The second building, the Old United States Mint, was designed by Alfred B. Mullett in Greek Revival style. It was built in an E-shape with a central pediment portico. There was a completely enclosed courtyard that had a well. It was these features that saved it in the fire that resulted from the earthquake of 1906. The building was situated on a concrete and granite foundation that was made to prevent tunneling into its vaults. In 1906 there was $300 million, a third of the United States gold reserves, in its vaults. Frank Leach and his men worked heroically to successfully preserve the building and the bullion. The mint was able to resume service and operated until 1937. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961.

Originally designed by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, low relief double eagle coins, modified by Charles Barber, were first issued in 1907. They continued until 1933, when all gold production stopped. The low relief coins had Arabic numerals for the date instead of the Roman numerals seen on the previous two issues. In 1908, despite President Roosevelts preferences to the contrary, the motto IN GOD WE TRUST was added to the reverse.

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. 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 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.