United States: 1899-S gold Liberty Head double eagle ($20.00), With Motto

United States: 1899-S gold Liberty Head double eagle ($20.00), With Motto

NGC MS63. Cert. #111214-002.

Numista-23125, Krause-Mishler-74.3.

Mintage: 2,010,300.

Ex-B&R Coins & Currency, at Table 722 at the 2026 Florida United Numismatists (FUN) show, Orlando, Florida, 10 January 2026.

This is a common-date $20 Liberty, but I don't mind that. I did want a date from the 1800s for my type coin, and not the oh-so-common 1904. This coin upgrades a PCGS MS62 of the same date that I had previously. The previous coin was rather generic and I thought this MS63 had superior eye appeal. The upgrade only cost me $75 after the trade-in of my old coin. Then I spent another $10 to have John Baumgart, (aka @messydesk) photograph this one at the show, since it lacks photos on the cert page. It helped that it is in an older NGC holder without those white prongs that interfere so much with photography.

So if you count my original investment of $2,200 that I had paid for the old coin in 2022 (before gold prices more than doubled), I have a total of $2,285 invested this coin. Which isn't bad, considering the dealer at the 2026 FUN show had it priced at $4,400 and the NGC priceguide value as of this typing (February 2026) is $4,950. I could not have afforded to purchase this coin outright, without the trade-in. I'm happy with the upgrade.



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