History

The $20 St Gaudens is named for the designer and was the work of two people, the American president Theodore Roosevelt and the gifted sculptor, Augustus Saint-Gaudens. President Roosevelt was a great admirer of ancient Greek coins and wanted to bring a similar beauty to U.S. coinage. President Roosevelt commissioned Saint-Gaudens to redesign the $10 and $20 gold coins in 1907.

The $20 St. Gaudens is considered to be the most beautiful United States coin. The first coins struck were in high relief and the date 1907 is in roman numerals. These coins were deemed, by the mint, too difficult to strike for general circulation and so were redesigned with a low-relief with the date in Arabic numerals. The Saint Gaudens $20 gold coins were struck from 1907 until 1933 and have a gross weight of 33.436 grams and is composed of .900 gold and .100 copper for a net weight of .9675 ounces of pure gold. The St Gaudens $20 gold coin has a lettered edge with the inscription E PLURIBUS UNUM, the words divided by stars, and has a diameter of 34 mm. The rarest date is the 1933 of which there is only one specimen that the U.S. government has deemed legal to own, because the 1933 double eagles were never officially released into circulation. This rare double eagle sold for over $7,000,000.00 in 2002.

Market Value

The market value of any coin depends on several factors. The first criterion is the intrinsic value of the precious metal in the coin; the second is the rarity of the coin and of course the quality and eye appeal of the coin. Once all of these criteria have been examined the actual current value of the coin can be determined. Never clean your coins to enhance their quality, generally speaking the quality of the coin is lowered by unnecessary or improper cleaning (leave that to the experts).

How to sell or buy

If you have coins that you are interesting in selling then contact us today. Our experts travel all over the world buying and evaluating coins with absolutely no obligation on your part. Visit our web site numismaticemporium.com for further information.