1870-S Liberty Head Double Eagle. MS-61 (PCGS).

1870-S Liberty Head Double Eagle. MS-61 (PCGS).，This uncommonly well preserved 1870-S twenty is fully lustrous with an uncommonly sharp strike for the type. While only modest numbers of double eagles were struck at Philadelphia, the situation was different in San Francisco, where a respectable 982,000 pieces were struck. Even though the healthy mintage figure would suggest ready availability of specimens in higher grades, this could not be further from the truth. While gold coins were the coin of the realm in the Western states, they were also important in the overseas trade. Most of this issue went abroad and only after the Second World War did they start to return to their country of origin. Even so, large numbers were melted down in the intervening years, further thinning the quantity of surviving specimens. Many of the great numismatic holdings of double eagles lacked a Mint State piece to represent the issue, to include the Eliasberg, Atwater, and Melish collections. While the famed Saddle Ridge Hoard contained sixteen 1870-S $20, as Ron Guth notes, many of these were ungradable. An important offering of a Mint State example such as here is not one to be missed.，，