One that’s been on my list for sometime has been a 1907 Saint found this nice example in A/U 58 so I immediatley pulled the trigger
Yes, the 1907 low relief Saint is an interesting coin. Now all you need is the High Relief. Seriously, you might think about getting a 1907 Liberty $20 someday. It's rated as a common date, but it's a lot scarcer than the 1904 which is the REALLY common date.
I'm using a dated 2004 Whitman/Bowers Red Book, but I see BOTH coins jumping a ton at the MS-65 level, though much more reasonable at MS-64 and MS-63. I've only recently been doing some research on Liberty Heads....but if these were commons, how come they are jumping so much at the MS-65 level unlike the common Saints at the same level ? Are the numbers available for Liberty commons so much less (esp. at the Gem MS level) that you see the premium to gold so high ?
The obverse design of the Liberty $20, with the large open fields and big cheek for Ms. Liberty, was much more prone to acquiring marks, which took them out of the MS-65 grade. If you look at the grading census for certified coins, the number of $20 Liberty coins drops dramatically from MS-64 to MS-65. There are far more St Gaudens $20 coins graded MS-65 than Liberty $20 pieces. Taking numbers from Dave Bowers book on type coins, here is the difference. These numbers are old, but they make the point. Type III $20 Liberty MS-64 58,392 MS-65 1,694 St. Gaudens $20, No Motto and With Motto combined MS-64 311,026 MS-65 103,179 I have noted that the standards for MS-65 Liberty have been watered down. Therefore there are more of them with the grade, and price premium has gone down. I have one more theory, which might be all wet. Perhaps during the St. Gaudens era, gold traders traded paper instead of physical gold. Therefore the bags of $20 St. Gaudens were moved less often and got fewer marks. Years ago I read that the $20 Liberty would be much harder to find as a type coin it weren’t for common dates like 1898-S and especially the 1904.
Thanks John...great analysis, and even though there are millions of Liberty Head DEs, your point on them not reaching the heights of the Saint DE series are noted. I really hope that Whitman and/or Bowers do an update on their DE book. I liked Bowers coffee table book on Liberty Head DEs, but it's not a substitute for the data and facts in the Red Book.
It will come eventually, I am constantly evaluating my collection, and looking for interesting coins like this one, I really like A/U grades 53-58 and have many the value and most of these are problem free just like this one
