The Saint-Gaudens $20 Double Eagle is certainly one of the most beautiful, popular, and widely recognized of all the world’s gold coins. The last gold piece struck by the U.S. government for regular issue, it will forever remain a symbol of the emerging greatness of the United States in the 20th Century.

The Famous “High Relief’ Saint...
In 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt summoned his personal friend, famed sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and confided what he called his “pet crime”: to redesign the country’s coinage in the likeness of the coins of ancient Greece, the birthplace of democracy. Although in failing health, Saint-Gaudens rose to what would become his last challenge, producing a stunning design that many consider to be the most beautiful coin ever produced.

Offered several choices by Saint-Gaudens, Teddy Roosevelt personally selected the so-called “High Relief” design. The obverse features the image of Miss Liberty striving gloriously into the future; the reverse features the majestic Flying Eagle. It is called “high-relief” because the devices are raised to an unusual height above the fields, which are excessively concave. During March and April of 1907, some 24 “Proof” specimens were struck of this Saint-Gaudens High Relief design. Each coin required an amazing nine blows of the dies to strike up the design in full detail! Sadly, Saint-Gaudens died on August 3, 1907, without seeing his magnificent coin enter into circulation.

In November of 1907, production of “regular issue” High Relief $20 Saint-Gaudens gold coins began. Some 11,250 coins were struck, but with great difficulty, for each coin required five blows from the press to raise the design into acceptable relief. In addition, bankers complained that these new coins, when placed in traditional bankers' stacks of twenty, wobbled and fell over! So practicality won out over aesthetics. The Saint Gaudens design was altered by Charles Barber into a “flat relief” version, and coin production resumed in earnest. The first Barber-redesigned Saints were struck with 1907 and 1908 dates. As one would expect, the original 1907 High Relief $20 Saint-Gaudens gold coins immediately became prized as collector’s items.