1872 Liberty Head $20 1850-1907 AU58

History

California gold flooding into the Treasury in the late 1840s prompted a denomination worth twice the eagle, and the double eagle entered circulation in 1850 with a design by Chief Engraver James B. Longacre. The coins moved bullion into coin form efficiently and served large international payments at a time when foreign parties distrusted American paper money. The 1872 belongs to the Type 2 group struck from 1866 through 1876, defined by IN GOD WE TRUST above the eagle while the denomination remained abbreviated as TWENTY D. In 1877 the reverse was respelled TWENTY DOLLARS, leaving the earlier motto coins as a separate type. Philadelphia, San Francisco and Carson City all struck double eagles in 1872.

Details

Longacre designed both sides, and the 1866 reverse modification that made room for the motto is also credited to him. The alloy is the standard 90 percent gold and 10 percent copper, giving a weight of 33.43 grams and an actual gold content of .96750 troy ounce. Diameter is reported at 34 mm and the edge is reeded. The Philadelphia coins carry no mintmark; on branch mint pieces of this series the letter sits immediately below the eagle on the reverse. Thirty proofs were struck at Philadelphia in 1872.

Features

The obverse carries the coroneted head of Liberty facing left with LIBERTY on the coronet, encircled by stars with the date below. On the reverse, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA arcs around the upper two thirds inside a denticulated rim, with TWENTY D. centered at the bottom and an eagle holding three arrows in its left claw and an olive branch in its right, shield across its breast. The eagle grips one of the two upper ends of an elaborately curled double scroll in its beak, with E PLURIBUS to the left and UNUM to the right. Thirteen small six-pointed stars form an oval above the eagle's head, seven against blank field and six overlapping the sunburst rays, and IN GOD WE TRUST sits within that ring of stars.

Notable facts

• Adding the motto in 1866 required enlarging the oval of stars and lengthening the eagle's tail feathers, changes that also shrank the space available for branch mint mintmarks.
• David Akers rated the 1872 a moderately scarce date, comparable to the 1865 and 1866 overall but far easier to find uncirculated, and considerably scarcer than the 1867.
• Fewer than ten of the thirty 1872 proofs are believed to survive, with at least two held permanently in institutional cabinets.
• Across the entire 1866 to 1876 Type 2 series, mints produced 16,160,758 business strikes and 335 proofs.
• A cancelled 1872-dated obverse double eagle die, bearing a C stamped on its shank, was offered at auction in July 2006, one of only a handful of Liberty Head $20 dies to reach the market.