The St. Gaudens’ $20 US Gold Coin: An Extraordinary Work of Art

Collecting US coins is a particularly interesting hobby. These prized objects not only represent an era in American history deemed highly remarkable, golden coins dating as far as the 18^th century are also treated as extraordinary pieces of art, and rightly so. An example of which is the esteemed St. Gaudens Double Eagle.

Regarded as one of the few exquisitely beautiful US coins ever produced, this twenty dollar gold piece holds a rich share of American history that competes with other golden coins in existence. Part of its intriguing appeal is that the St. Gaudens Double Eagle is actually one of the most difficult top-quality coins to get hold of. An avid coin collector will surely be put into an intricate treasure hunt in the pursuit of a high-quality St. Gaudens Double Eagle coin.

This Double Eagle coin is named after its designer, Augustus St. Gaudens, a key figure in American sculpture history. His sophisticated work on the high-relief golden $20 coin features a strong and prominent Lady Liberty on the frontage. The significant symbol of American patriotism carries a torch ablaze with a golden fire, and encircling the edges of these magnificent coins are a total of 46 stars.

The St. Gaudens Double Eagle underwent key changes in design and content. The first few coins produced in the original 1907 design depicted a date engraved in Roman numerals; however the more relevant and convenient Arabic numerals were engraved instead.

“In God We Trust” was the motto originally engraved on the first design, however, President Theodore Roosevelt, decided to have the words omitted, placing emphasis on the inappropriateness of putting God’s holy name on money. But by the act of Congress during the mid-1900s, the motto was added once more, this time permanently.

The St. Gaudens Double Eagle again went through another revision in 1912, when New Mexico and Arizona became states, the number of stars engraved on the rim of the golden coins was increased from 46 to 48. The Double Eagle mint though at first was set in high-relief form, later on maintained a low-relief version, due to the careful sophistication that was needed to be orchestrated with the high-relief coins. These took up to eleven firm strikes in order to bring out clearly the fine details of the golden coin.

These golden coins were produced from 1907 all throughout 1933, where coin production from gold was eventually abolished by President Roosevelt as the answer to the general bank crisis that crippled the 1930’s era. The new law made it illegal for anyone to be in possession of US golden coins, and people everywhere were made to surrender to the government their gold coins in exchange for other forms of US currency.

As a result, the existence of high-quality St. Gaudens Double Eagles was adversely affected. The finer original copies did show up later, and these were typically specimens that survived because they were carefully stored inside French and Swiss banks during the Great Recall period.

The startling combination of rareness and historical value is often seen in the hobby of coin collection. This would certainly make a fine addition to any avid collector’s array of coin collections.

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