1885-S Liberty Head Double Eagle. MS-63 (PCGS). CAC.Handsome rose-gold patina blends with frosty mint luster on both sides of this sharply struck, overall smooth-looking example. The mintage for this issue is 683,500 coins ($13,670,000 face value). Similar to contemporary San Francisco Mint twenties most 1885-S examples promptly entered circulation; many others were shipped overseas as a component of international trade, and still others were set aside for the backing of Gold Certificates. David W. Akers, writing in 1982, enumerated a few dozen Uncirculated examples that he found listed in a survey of major auction sales going back to the 1940s. By 2004, when Q. David Bowers penned his Guide Book of Double Eagles, the supply was estimated at between 2,000 and 4,000 examples, this being in a different era after significant quantities of classic U.S. Mint gold coins had been repatriated from foreign bank hoards. While plentiful in lower grades, the 1885-S remains scarce in Choice Mint State and rare any finer. This is an outstanding coin worthy of the strongest bids.
