1866 Liberty Head Double Eagle. AU-58 (PCGS).Warmly patinated honey-gold surfaces with iridescent highlights of champagne-pink. Both sides are sharply struck with a richly frosted finish from the dies. The first year of the Type II design with the addition of the motto IN GOD WE TRUST on the reverse, the post-Civil War economy was still quite tenuous when the Philadelphia Mint struck 698,745 double eagles in 1866. The entire issue entered circulation with little fanfare, the coins subject to hoarding or used for overseas payments where specie was the preferred medium of exchange, a situation that would persist well into the 1870s. Even though a few thousand survivors are thought extant, almost all are in lower circulated grade levels. Popular as the first year for the type, here is a desirable and scarce near-Mint example for the double eagle connoisseur.From the Fairmont Collection.
