This impressive near-Mint survivor offers a superior strike and gorgeous warm rose-orange patina. Plenty of satiny mint luster remains, as expected at the assigned grade level, and the overall appearance is very attractive for a lightly circulated double eagle from the pre-Civil War era. Long regarded as the only overdate in the entire Liberty double eagle series of 1850 to 1907, the overdate status of the 1853/2 has been changed across the board by Whitman Publishing, LLC, PCGS and NGC, relegating it to a repunching, but for tradition s sake, sometimes putting "1853/2" in quotation marks. This variety was discovered in the late 1950s, received significant publicity beginning in the 1980s, and is listed in Walter Breen s Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins (Breen-7162) and the Cherrypicker s Guide to Rare Die Varieties of United States Coins, Fifth Edition, Volume II by Bill Fivaz and J.T. Stanton. The "artifact" within the lower loop of the digit 3 does not at all resemble a 2, but it is bold and interesting. Mint State examples of this repunched date are exceedingly rare with fewer than 15 different grading events for the variety at PCGS and NGC combined. At the threshold of full Mint State quality, the important condition rarity we offer here would serve as a highlight in the finest double eagle collection. The year 1853 witnessed widespread changes to our nation s monetary system. The catalyst for these changes was the discovery of gold in California in 1848 and, more specifically, the vast quantities of that precious metal that flooded the market in subsequent years. In 1853 alone more than $65 million in gold was mined in California. Such an immense influx of gold into the economy upset the delicate balance between gold and silver, with the value of silver actually rising relative to gold. By the early 1850s the bullion value of U.S. silver coins had become greater than their face value, resulting in widespread hoarding and melting. The Coinage Act of February 21, 1853, sought to return silver coins to circulation by reducing the weight of the half dime, dime, quarter and half dollar and making the pieces subsidiary. (The weight of the silver dollar remained unchanged). In this it succeeded, with the smaller denomination silver coins through the half dollar once again circulating freely. The 1853/ 2 double eagle -- important as an absolute and condition rarity in its own right -- gains even further desirability as a direct link to the tumultuous monetary situation in the United States during the early 1850s. In fact, few U.S. coin denominations are as closely linked to the California Gold Rush and its monetary effects than the double eagle, for it was authorized in 1849 specifically to serve as a storehouse for the vast quantities of gold then being mined in California. ， Est. $20,000-$30,000
