The 1927 St. Guadens Double Eagle is part of a series of $20 gold coins that were struck by the United States Mint in the late 1800s and early 1900s during the peak of new US gold discoveries, most notably the California discovery in 1849. Double Eagle refers to a wide range of US gold coins with a denomination of $20. The St. Gaudens series was manufactured by the mint between 1907 and 1933.
The coin is named after its designer, French native Augustus Saint-Guadens. Saint-Guadens had a contentious history with the US Mint and with its official representatives, but agreed to redesign the new Double Eagle when asked by personal friend, then-President Theodore Roosevelt. After many models were rejected as too complex and inefficient to mint into coins, the first coins were released in 1907, shortly after the death of their designer.
The obverse of the St. Gaudens Double Eagle shows an image of Liberty (personified as a woman), holding a torch in one hand and an olive branch in the other against a backdrop of sun rays and a distant image of the US Capitol building. Fifty stars encircle the diameter of the obverse image representing the 50 States of the Union. The reverse of the coin shows an eagle in flight also backed by the rays of the sun. The St. Gaudens design is considered by many to be the most beautiful and visually appealing of any US coin design ever created.
The original design was modified in 1912 to add two stars to the image to reflect the admission of Hawaii and Alaska into the Union.
The 1927 coin was minted at three locations: Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco. The location of the mint can be determined by examining the mint mark on the coin. A D means the coin was minted in Denver, S for San Francisco, and no mint mark indicates Philadelphia as the origin. The total circulation strikes for the 1927 series were 6,233,750. The vast majority of minting occurred in Philadelphia and San Francisco, with only 180,000 strikes being made in the Denver facility.
In recent years, gold has become an extremely popular investment and the price has skyrocketed significantly. Worries about general economic problems and financial breakdowns have investors and citizens turning to gold as a tried-and-true safety as opposed to fiat money or volatile securities. Gold coins are simple, small, and lightweight means of physically owning gold and have also become more sought-after. The 1927 St. Gaudens Double Eagle is no exception. Originally minted to contain $20 worth of gold in 1927, these coins are now selling for approximately $2,000, a nearly 10,000% price increase. And as the price of gold continues to move higher the 1927 St. Gaudens Double Eagle is expected to also continue its phenomenal price appreciation.