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Message:: [QUOTE="GoldFinger1969, post: 25299964, member: 73489"]Saint-Gaudens Hoards By Date: Wow, I forgot to finish the series.  Let's move on past WW I with the next batch of hoards.... 1920-S:   Doubtful if any single date bags of uncirculated 1920-S double eagles were ever sent overseas since no large quantity or even small groups of uncirculated 1920-S Saints were ever returned to the U.S.; only the occasional circulated or minimal uncirculated specimen.   Paul Wittlin,  the European buyer for James Kelly and later Paramount, searched more than 20 years for rare and scarce date U S gold coins in Paris and Swiss banks.  He managed to find only the occasional single AU or uncirculated 1920-S double eagle never any quantities of uncirculated pieces and not a single one that was really nice like MS63 or better. New research by Roger Burdette into the origin of surviving coins suggests that less than 200 pieces believed known today likely came from two sources: a production residual of 144 coins that the San Francisco Mint Cashier paid out shortly after production, and from a group of 543 pieces that was shipped to Philadelphia for the Annual Assay Commission and was later, at least in part, paid out by the Philadelphia Mint Cashier. There is little evidence to suggest that any significant quantities of the 1920-S double eagle were ever distributed through other channels.  Only a few specimens of the 1920-S have turned up in European holdings over the years. 1921: 3 or 4 best in U.S. hands in 1940’s.  2nd rarest Saint behind 1927-D and 1st in condition rarity.   Lower MS and circulated coins only came back from European hoards and only a few per bag. 1922: End of 1921 Depression led to boom in exports and many Saints sent overseas to Europe, S/C America…mostly MS60-64’s.  Tens of thousands of coins came back. 1922-S: Steady stream from 1950’s through 1970’s from Europe.  From super-rare to scarce.  Large number in 1983 MTB Hoard.  The 1922-S began to appear in quantity in European banks in the 1950’s and 1960’s, and the date was well represented in the 1983 MTB Hoard. Today, the 1922-S can be found in lower Mint State grades with little difficulty; high-grade examples remain quite rare. 1923: The 1923 Philadelphia-issue $20, like its 1922-P counterpart, was spared the mass meltings of the 1930s. This was likely because many were among large quantities of coins shipped to Germany under the Dawes Plan and which then transferred from bank-to-bank. However, among Philadelphia Mint $20s, the 1923 double eagle is the scarcest in the 1922 through 1928 range. A typical 1923 grades MS62, which is in line with the condition of many European hoard coins. Better preserved examples are difficult to locate and anything MS65 or finer is a rarity and will attract considerable attention at auction. 1923-D: Most pieces seem to have been preserved in foreign holdings, most likely in Argentina or Brazil where it was common practice to leave U.S. gold untouched in its original bags. A small hoard of 1,000 pieces, alleged to have been owned by Virgil Brand, came to light in 1981-1982 but other groups seem to have been much more modest in size.[/QUOTE]

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