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Message:: [QUOTE="johnmilton, post: 5440311, member: 101855"]Since I am more interested in the type coin than the source, I filled the Type I slot in my set with an 1857-S $20 gold from the SS Central America recovery operation. It is one of the “scarce ones” that is not in a PCGS gold foil holder. According to the Grey Sheet that makes it less valuable. Winter is spot on as to why there are so few high grade Type I and II double Eagles that are not ship wreck discovery coins. Twenty Dollars was a month’s wages for many years and few people could not afford to put that much aside doing nothing but sitting around as a collector’s item. Collectors were also not as obsessed or exacting with high grades as they are now. The grades were “Unc.” (MS- 60, 61 and 62) and Gem Unc. (MS- 64, 65 and 66). Usually the Gem Unc. premiums were not as much as they are today. Back in the 1960s when I was collecting the eight piece gold type set, an Unc. common date $10 Liberty gold cost $45 and the higher grade piece was $47.50. This was the Stacks’ price which would have been full retail. I bought the Gem piece. Today it’s in an NGC MS-65 holder.[/QUOTE]