1869-S Liberty Head Double Eagle. MS-61 (PCGS).，Well struck for a Type II double eagle, this endearing piece is also lustrous and uncommonly well preserved for the 1869-S issue. The phrase "Black Friday" today conjures up images of stock market selloffs as well as frenetic shopping excursions the day after Thanksgiving, but it has its origins in one of the seminal financial crises of the Gilded Age. In 1869 in a move to corner the market in gold, speculators Jay Gould and James Fisk cooked up a scheme to convince several Treasury officials to keep the price of gold artificially higher than normal by keeping the governments holdings of the metal in the commodities market. Officially this move was to allow domestic farmers to have a competitive advantage in foreign markets, but in reality it gave Gould and Fisk ample opportunity to buy up as much interest in the precious metal, forcing the premium on gold to go up by one-third. When President Ulysses Grant uncovered the scheme in September, he immediately ordered the release of $4,000,000 in gold mostly in double eagles on Friday, September 24. The gold price returned to normal levels and the scheme ultimately failed, ruining many speculators, and thus Black Friday entered common usage. The 686,750 double eagles produced at the San Francisco Mint entered circulation immediately and saw extensive use both domestically and in international trade. Consequently, the overwhelming majority of survivors are in lower levels of preservation. Rarely encountered at any grade level above AU, charming Mint State examples are coveted today as a tangible reminder of the perils of speculation.，，
