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Message:: [QUOTE="GoldFinger1969, post: 25358986, member: 73489"]Let's hit 1926 and 1927..... 1926: Last of the big exports of gold coins went overseas as part of Dawes Plan to support Weimar Germany.  The 1926 Saints are another mintage that escaped the 1937 Treasury melting because they were overseas. Overall analysis of authentication and auction records indicate that surviving 1926 double eagles came from South American and European central banks in almost equal quantities. This is not especially unusual given the direct U.S.–South American trade, and indirect Europe–South American trade of the 1920s. Of the latter, purchases of grain from Argentina by Germany (and Britain to a lesser extent) may have transferred new U.S. coins to stable vaults in the Americas. The last of large American loans went to Germany in 1926. This totaled $45 million in gold coins and was the only large shipment of coins to Europe for the year. Over three years $111,391,000 in coins, almost entirely Double Eagles, was sent to support the Deutsches Reich (Weimar Republic). The money loaned to Germany helped only a little and additional loans were negotiated so that interest on the first loans could be paid. Germany used U.S. gold to buy food and limited quantities of industrial materials throughout Europe, and rebuild its manufacturing infrastructure. These types of purchases fueled multiple European interbank transfers that created many of the “bank-circulated” double eagles seen in European hoards. 1926-D: European mini-hoards reduced rarity but not at MS-66 level (2).  A few came out of Swiss banks after WWII, but not enough to supply an ever-burgeoning demand.  Prior to the discovery of the small hoards in Europe, the 1926-D was considered to be one of the three greatest rarities in the series, second only to the 1924-S and slightly more rare than the 1926-S. It was also thought to be more rare than the 1920-S, 1921, and 1927-D, the three most valuable regular issues of the series today. The Green specimen realized $2,500 in 1949, the second highest price in that sale behind a proof 1858 eagle that realized $4,250. David Akers recounts in the Heritage Duckor collection catalog that somewhat later, an Ohio collector “paid only $500 for what is now one of the finest 1926-D’s, indicating he probably purchased it in the early 1950s after the value of a 1926-D had dropped dramatically due to the initial discovery of some small hoards of the issue in Europe.” 1926-S: 1950’s mini-hoards.  Scarcity drops.  Like many dates from the 1920s, the 1926-S began to turn up in European holdings in the 1950s, and its rarity as a date has declined over the years. 1927:   "....An examination of pre-1960 auction listings is instructive; the earliest auction record in the David Akers United States Gold Coins reference, the 1941 Dunham Collection sold by B. Max Mehl, is listed in the catalog as "very scarce," and Stack's used an identical phrase to describe the issue in 1944 for the J.F. Bell auction catalog. The impact of 1960s repatriation is especially noticeable in the auction records compiled by Akers: the trickle of auction appearances in the 1940's and 1950s, fewer than one a year for each decade, turns into a steady stream through the 1960s and then a torrent in the 1970s." 1927-D: Not a single 1927-D ever turned up in any overseas hoards. It appears that most of the surviving 1927-D double eagles ultimately derive from collectors who obtained them directly from the Denver Mint or the Treasurer’s office in Washington.  In the 1940s, the 1924-S and 1926-D were perceived as the ultimate rarities of the Saint-Gaudens series, and when those dates became more available due to European finds, the previously unappreciated 1927-D was waiting to assume the mantle. 1927-S: Only a small number of examples surfaced in European holdings in the 1950s.  David Akers, a principal of the Paramount International Coin Company, was privy to many records of transactions between Jim Kelly and Paul Wittlin, who was the main conduit for bringing European holdings to the U.S. coin market. In Price List 8 (Paramount,1974), Akers made the following observations about the 1927-S: "This is the first example of this rare date that we have owned in several years and even when we were regularly receiving shipments of rare double eagles from our European buyer Paul Wittlin, the 1927-S was conspicuous by its absence although in such shipments we received as many as six 1921's at one time or two 1870-CC's, or half a dozen 1891's! Of course, the days of such shipments are far behind us and will never be repeated again, but the fact remains that even in those bountiful days the 1927-S was seldom sent to us and this is a strong indicator of the coin's rarity." In the 1950s one or two pieces at a time of the 1927-S began to show up in European gold holdings. But, unlike the 1922-S and 1926-S, it never appeared in quantity, and its rarity status has remained constant through the years. There were enough returned from Europe, however, to greatly alter the overall population rarity of the 1927-S. Now, instead of only 10-12 known, there are more like 150-200, meaning the 1927-S is considered moderately rare today rather than the great rarity it once was thought to be.[/QUOTE]

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