1903-S Liberty Head Double Eagle : A Collector’s Guide

By Charles Morgan and Hubert Walker for CoinWeek Notes …..
 

The San Francisco Mint struck coins in seven denominations in 1903, the 1903-S Liberty Head Double Eagle and the 1903-S Morgan Dollar being the scarcest of them in today’s market, the Morgan having roughly the same value as the Double Eagle in grades About Uncirculated and finer.

The 1903-S Liberty Head Double Eagle had a mintage of 954,000 pieces, the lowest output for the San Francisco Mint since 1892. However, this mintage looks robust compared to the Philadelphia Mint’s output from 1901-’03 and 1905-’06.

The overwhelming majority of the year’s mintage was either held by the Treasury Department or returned to it after the gold recall of 1933 and subsequently melted down into “dirty” gold ingots. The reason why the 1903-S is readily available for collectors is that some 10,000 to 15,000 Mint State examples were repatriated to the United States after World War II.

In his 1982 book United States Gold Coins: An Analysis of Auction Records, Volume IV: Double Eagles, 1849-1933, numismatist David W. Akers counted 151 auction appearances for the coin between 1946 and 1981. With the repatriations and the benefit of third-party grading, we can better understand the true size of the surviving population. Both NGC and PCGS report more than 6,000 grading events each for the 1903-S Double Eagle, with the most common grade being MS62. Certified populations skew heavily in favor of uncirculated coins due to the cost of submission; nevertheless, we surmise that a significant number of AU coins exist and are not represented in the data.

Given the softness of gold, the size of the coin, and the manner in which they survived, the 1903-S Liberty Head Double Eagle is a condition rarity in grades MS65 and above. NGC reports two coins at MS66, while PCGS has yet to grade a single specimen over MS65.

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1903-S Liberty Head Double Eagle Market Data and Noteworthy Specimens

In 2010, art dealer Forrest Fenn published a collection of short stories titled The Thrill of the Chase: A Memoir. The book included a series of clues about a hidden treasure trove of gold nuggets, rare coins, jewelry, and gemstones that he buried somewhere in the Rockies north of his art gallery in Santa Fe.

The search for Fenn’s Treasure took 10 years, and at least five seekers lost their lives in the Rocky Mountain wilderness. In 2020, the riddle was solved when Jack Stuef, a med student from Michigan, notified Fenn that he had discovered the cache inside a 22-pound bronze chest, hidden in a secluded spot in Wyoming.

Stuef consigned the treasure to Heritage Auctions, which sent more than 250 coins and 150 lots of gold nuggets, flakes, and dust to NGC for certification. Among the coins inside the 22-pound bronze chest were five 1903-S Liberty Head Double Eagles. Two of the five (NGC MS62 #6323750-002 and MS61 #6323749-019) were certified in Mint State.

The NGC MS65 population has risen from 22 to 27 since 2009. The PCGS MS65 population has risen from six in 2006 to 23 as of October 26, 2024.

Top Population: PCGS MS65 (23, 10/2024), NGC MS66 (2, 10/2024), and CAC MS65 (0:1 stickered:graded 10/24).

• NGC MS65+ #2122244-001: Stack’s Bowers, April 5, 2022, Lot 3184 – $18,000. Flashy luster. Strike softness at top of LIBERTY. Planchet void on neck. Thin diagonal contact marks to the upper right of the date. Diagonal cut between stars 7 and 8. On the reverse, thin diagonal contact mark on the horizontal lines of the shield.
• PCGS MS65 #49209567: Marketed by DLRC in October 2024 for $16,500. Small cluster of diagonal hits to the left of nose. Tiny tick behind mouth. On the reverse, there are copper spots: one below left wing, another on ribbon, and two amongst letters of DOLLARS.
• PCGS MS65 #37557690: Heritage Auctions, August 3, 2020, Lot 3620 – $10,800; Legend Rare Coin Auctions, December 16, 2021, Lot 376 – $21,150; “The Oak Creek Collection of Liberty Gold Double Eagles,” GreatCollections, June 16, 2024, Lot 1569654 – View.
• NGC MS65 #3698120-026: “The Eureka Gold Collection”; “The ‘So Cal’ Collection,” Heritage Auctions, January 10, 2020, Lot 5717 – $8,100. EUREKA GOLD COLLECTION on insert. Light copper spotting between stars 2 and 3. Die crack from date to star 12. Various light contact marks on obverse and reverse fields.
• PCGS MS65: Stack’s Bowers, March 13, 2013, Lot 2193 – $12,925.
• NGC MS65 #317929-008: Heritage Auctions, August 1, 2009, Lot 2747 – $10,350. Dappled with orange copper spots on the obverse: above eye, three to the right of the bust truncation. Dark streaks across hair. Darker spots on the shield.
• NGC MS65: Stack’s, August 13, 2007, Lot 7091 – $16,675.
• PCGS MS65 #21091134: Heritage Auctions, June 10, 2002, Lot 1834 – $8,050; “The Kutasi Collection,” Heritage Auctions, January 4, 2007, Lot 3248 – $12,650.
• PCGS MS65 #4276665: Heritage Auctions, September 5, 2006, Lot 13908 – $10,930. Old Green Holder.
• NGC MS65 $266191-005: Heritage Auctions, March 26, 2004, Lot 6503 – $7,475.
• NGC MS65 #274136-001: Heritage Auctions, January 7, 2004, Lot 3213 – $7,475. Small streak or spot between date and star 13. On the reverse, there is a diagonal cut across eagle’s neck. Tick below R of AMERICA. Diagonal hit across the horizontal lines of the shield.
• NGC MS65 #587197-043: “The Eagle Collection of $20 Liberties,” Heritage Auctions, January 11, 2002, Lot 4136 – $7,187.50. EAGLE COLLECTION on insert. Top pop, pop one when offered. Deep hit below star 9.

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Design

Obverse:

As the one-time largest circulating denomination in the United States, the double eagle makes quite the artistic statement. The obverse features a stoic left-facing profile portrait of Lady Liberty wearing a coronet inscribed with the word LIBERTY. Her hair is held up in a knot, with curling locks falling down the back of her neck. Encircling the bust are 13 six-pointed stars representing the 13 original colonies. The date 1903 appears below the truncation.

Reverse:

A heraldic eagle is in the center. A semi-circle of sunbeams extends from wingtip to wingtip, encompassing a circle of 13 six-pointed stars and the motto IN GOD WE TRUST. The eagle’s shield is bracketed by two large scrolls, one on each side that together contain the motto E PLURIBUS UNUM. Ringing the main design are the legend UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and the denomination TWENTY DOLLARS. The S mintmark of the San Francisco Mint appears above the gap between TWENTY and DOLLARS.

Edge:

The edge of the 1885 Liberty Head Double Eagle is reeded.

Designer

James Barton Longacre (1794-1869) was one of the most famous U.S. engravers and medallic artists of the 19th century. Longacre was appointed the fourth Chief Engraver of the United States Mint by President John Tyler after Christian Gobrecht died in 1844. Before his appointment, Longacre worked for the Philadelphia engraving company Murray, Draper, Fairman & Co. until he began working for himself in 1819. As an independent engraver, Longacre produced a series of famous plates that featured the Founding Fathers, President Andrew Jackson, and Senator John C. Calhoun. Once he became Chief Engraver at the Mint, he produced such famous pieces as the Flying Eagle Cent, the Indian Head Cent, and the Shield Nickel.

Coin Specifications

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