Saint Gaudens Double Eagle

1908 No Motto $20 Gold Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle BU Coin SKU36513

1908 No Motto $20 Gold Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle BU Coin SKU36513
1908 No Motto $20 Gold Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle BU Coin SKU36513

1908 No Motto $20 Gold Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle BU Coin SKU36513
The renaissance of American coinage began with President Theodore Roosevelt, a dream, and sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Roosevelt commissioned Saint-Gaudens to create a number of designs to be used on American coinage that were "distinctly American, " evoking thoughts of Liberty and American native heritage. Saint-Gaudens' design for the double eagle coin was a very artful masterpiece created over a period of more than a year. It was accepted almost as he had originally designed it, with few exceptions. It was completed by another designer upon his death in 1907 from cancer - he never saw a single coin he designed circulate, as they would first be minted nearly six months after his death.

The first manifestation of Saint-Gaudens' double eagle design would prove to have made a great medal, but not a very good coin. Its relief was more medal-like, and was too high to stack properly as a coin.

Revisions were made for the 1908 release that lowered the relief of the coin, and production began. A short time after the release of the new coins, public outcry - them congressional outcry - to include the now-common motto "In God We Trust" created the need to change the coins within the year, so the design was edited by Chief Engraver Charles E. Barber toward the end of the production year for 1908, and a number of coins were struck with the motto on the reverse of the coin. These are more scarce than the version without the motto.

Including the motto on United States coinage. The move to include the motto had come during the leadership of James B. Longacre who initially included the motto on the new two-cent coin in 1864 on the suggestion of an official in government. He continued to change the coinage by adding the motto to other designs as time permitted, because he was under no particular direction by the government to do so.

Saint-Gaudens agreed, and was happy to omit the motto from his designs. The outcry that ended the choice of artists to exclude the motto ended with this coin when a law was passed in 1908 that required the motto. The last coin minted for commerce without the motto was the 1909 Indian Head cent, which was replaced that year with a motto-bearing Lincoln cent. We cannot make any price adjustments after the sale is complete.

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That's the MCM way. This listing is currently undergoing maintenance, we apologise for any inconvenience caused. The item "1908 No Motto $20 Gold Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle BU Coin SKU36513" is in sale since Thursday, October 05, 2017. This item is in the category "Coins & Paper Money\Coins\ US\Gold (Pre-1933)\$20, Double Eagle". The seller is "mcm" and is located in Sarasota, Florida.

This item can be shipped worldwide.

  • Certification: Uncertified
  • Grade: Ungraded
  • Composition: Gold
  • Fineness: .

    9675 oz
  • Denomination: $20
  • Year: 1908
  • Estimated Mintage: 4,271,551
  • Strike Type: Business
  • Country/Region of Manufacture: United States
  • Circulated/Uncirculated: Uncirculated

1908 No Motto $20 Gold Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle BU Coin SKU36513