Featured Coins

Legendary 1856-O Double Eagle Second Rarest New Orleans Mint $20 A Newcomer to the Modern Census 1856-O Liberty Head Double Eagle. Winter-1. EF-40 (PCGS). Among its chief positive attributes are color and detail, the former an attractive medium orange-olive, the latter bold with just overall light wear that finds greatest concentration at the high points. The luster is strong for this grade level, the protected areas around and within the design elements retaining ample evidence of a frosty to modestly reflective finish. Traces of old, light surface build up are seen here and there around the peripheries, most noticeably within the obverse denticles before the date. Wispy hairlines and a touch of glossiness to the texture are also noted for accuracy, but with so few sizable marks, just a light scuff on Liberty's chin and an even smaller nick before the earlobe serve as identifiers for provenance purposes. Quite smooth during in-hand viewing, this is a coin that would fit comfortably into any advanced collection of double eagles or Southern gold coinage. It might seem strange at first glance that the New Orleans Mint produced so few double eagles in virtually every year from 1850 through the facilities' seizure by Confederate forces in 1861. After all, the Coinage Act of March 3, 1849, created the double eagle directly in response to the discovery of gold in California the preceding year. However, most gold was shipped to New York City where it was processed by the sub-Treasury, with much then sent to England and to the Philadelphia Mint. There was no particular reason to have double eagles coined in New Orleans with the Philadelphia Mint so close to New York. Production started reasonably well, nonetheless, with yearly mintages of more than 100,000 double eagles in New Orleans from 1850 to 1852. In 1851 315,000 twenties were struck, a small number compared to the output of the Philadelphia Mint (2,087,155 pieces), but it was a record for the New Orleans Mint. Beginning in 1853, however, two important events would severely curtail double eagle production in New Orleans through the onset of the Civil War. The first was the commencement of large scale $20 gold coin production at the United States Assay Office of Gold in San Francisco in 1853. With the ability to convert gold bullion into a high quality, widely accepted $20 gold coin so close to the mining operations, there was little need to take on the cost and risk of transporting the metal to New Orleans. Double eagle coinage in New Orleans reflected this shift in fortunes with a reduction in mintage figures from 190,000 pieces in 1852 to just 71,000 coins in 1853. The downward spiral of double eagle production in New Orleans would continue and, in fact, steepen in 1854, caused in part by the facility being in disrepair and needing extensive renovations. From that year through 1861 and the start of the Civil War, double eagle deliveries from the New Orleans Mint would remain below the 40,000-coin mark each year, and in 1855, 1856, 1859 and 1860 they would not even reach 10,000 pieces. Throughout the entire era of Type I double eagle production there, problems in the New Orleans Mint also contributed to limited mintages. Built on unstable ground that had once been river bed and remained close to the Mississippi River, the building settled and suffered significant enough wear and tear that by 1854 the federal government began taking action to repair the facility, as noted above. Construction commenced in 1855 and continued intermittently through 1857. Additionally, the humid atmosphere and wet conditions in New Orleans brought on a yellow fever epidemic in 1853 that claimed the lives of 8,000 people in only four months. With both local conditions and developments in the West conspiring against it, it is remarkable that the New Orleans Mint produced as many double eagles as it did throughout the 1850s. In many ways conditions were as rustic and challenging as at the Carson City Mint during its earliest years of operations in the 1870s. Like those who are attracted to the history and romance of Carson City Mint coinage, a growing number of specialists are attracted by the fascinating story of our nation's southernmost mint. The 1856-O is one of the rarest double eagles from the New Orleans Mint. Just 2,250 pieces were produced, and the most modern estimate for survivors is the range of 30 to 40 pieces put forth by Douglas Winter in the 2025 revision to his standard reference Gold Coins of the New Orleans Mint: 1839-1909. The author also traces 25 distinct examples in that work, two of which are permanently impounded in the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian Institution, and most of the rest having appeared at auction at least once in the last two decades or so. Not surprisingly, the James A. Stack, Sr. specimen is not included in the Winter census, as it is making its first appearance in the modern market. Just as it has done for the Stack Collection, it will establish the importance of the next collection in which it is included. Provenance: From the James A. Stack, Sr. Collection.