1924 $20 MS66 Certification #06667126, PCGS #9177

Charles Morgan

The 1924 Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle

The 1924 Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle (#9177) sits at the center of a run of commonly encountered issues within this famous $20 gold series. Following the 1924, collectors frequently encounter the 1925 (PCGS #9180), 1926 (#9183), 1927 (#9186), and 1928 (#9189). In typical lower uncirculated grades, these are generally priced at the prevailing gold spot price plus a modest numismatic premium. At this point in the series, mintmarked issues trade at significant premiums, and any dates later than 1928 (the "late dates") are considered scarce to rare and are priced accordingly.

In total, the Mint struck 4,323,500 examples of the 1924. While the Federal Government recalled the majority of these coins following President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 6102, hundreds of thousands escaped confiscation having been paid out internationally.

Dates like the 1924 are often referred to in the trade as "generic gold," but I have never understood how this term serves the buyer or the seller—especially in the certified coin era. Even so-called "generics" have a threshold where the issue becomes conditionally rare.

PCGS has certified over 360,000 1924 Saint-Gaudens Double Eagles, yet only 3% of those have earned a grade of MS66 or finer, and a mere 0.00044% have reached MS67 or better. Clearly, there is nothing "generic" about such specimens. Furthermore, if you compare the 1924 Saint to American Gold Eagle (AGE) bullion coins, the distinction becomes even clearer. Even if hundreds of thousands of additional 1924s were submitted for encapsulation, the date would never be as "common" as a 1998 AGE (#9937, mintage: 1,468,530) or a 2010 AGE (#415542, mintage: 1,125,000). While modern issues typically grade MS69 and "break down" only at the MS70 level, the 1924 remains far from uniform.

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Charles Morgan

The 1924 Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle

The 1924 Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle (#9177) sits at the center of a run of commonly encountered issues within this famous $20 gold series. Following the 1924, collectors frequently encounter the 1925 (PCGS #9180), 1926 (#9183), 1927 (#9186), and 1928 (#9189). In typical lower uncirculated grades, these are generally priced at the prevailing gold spot price plus a modest numismatic premium. At this point in the series, mintmarked issues trade at significant premiums, and any dates later than 1928 (the "late dates") are considered scarce to rare and are priced accordingly.

In total, the Mint struck 4,323,500 examples of the 1924. While the Federal Government recalled the majority of these coins following President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 6102, hundreds of thousands escaped confiscation having been paid out internationally.

Dates like the 1924 are often referred to in the trade as "generic gold," but I have never understood how this term serves the buyer or the seller—especially in the certified coin era. Even so-called "generics" have a threshold where the issue becomes conditionally rare.

PCGS has certified over 360,000 1924 Saint-Gaudens Double Eagles, yet only 3% of those have earned a grade of MS66 or finer, and a mere 0.00044% have reached MS67 or better. Clearly, there is nothing "generic" about such specimens. Furthermore, if you compare the 1924 Saint to American Gold Eagle (AGE) bullion coins, the distinction becomes even clearer. Even if hundreds of thousands of additional 1924s were submitted for encapsulation, the date would never be as "common" as a 1998 AGE (#9937, mintage: 1,468,530) or a 2010 AGE (#415542, mintage: 1,125,000). While modern issues typically grade MS69 and "break down" only at the MS70 level, the 1924 remains far from uniform.

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