The SilverTowne Vault Blog

100 Greatest U.S. Coins Series: 1927-D Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle

Published 02/17/2026

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...read more