One of the most highly coveted gold coins from United States history is the feature in our blog series today covering Whitman Publishing’s 100 Greatest United States Coins. A rarity in its series and a rarity in U.S. coinage period, author Jeff Garrett takes us along with him on the backstory and how it ended up on this top 100 compilation.
#64 – 1927-D Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle
According to Garrett, the 1927-D is the one of the rarest dates in the double eagle series. With a mintage of 180,000, it appears that the entirety of it was destroyed with the exception of a few surviving examples. Garrett explains that the earlier date should not have been affected by the gold recall in 1933 by the United States directly, but does go on to say that after the U.S. stopped paying out in gold coins to foreign banks, countries overseas may have held on to them when they were later asked to return them to the American public.
After the Second World War, it was found that many double eagles and other coins were realized in vaults in countries like France, Venezuela, Switzerland, and others. However, it was also discovered that those double eagles were not the 1927-D. It is believed that due in part to the lower mintage of the coins, none of them have appeared to have gone to Europe in the first place.
The coin was not even considered a true rarity for years as other dates, such as the 1924-D and 1926-D, were much rarer. Those dates, however, were found in the hoards located in European vaults. As time has passed, the 1927-D double eagle continues to be unfound. That is, until two showed up in a museum in Connecticut in 1995. They came from the collection that was donated and formed by Joseph Mitchelson. Garrett believes the two 1927-D double eagles were purchased when released and stored away, escaping the gold recall unseen.
