Every once in a while I come across a true rarity. In this case, the rare gold coin is an 1881 Double Eagle Liberty $20 Gold Coin. As a series, the Liberty Double Eagles are very common for most years and it is not too hard to purchase them in MS condition for around melt value. Most gold coin collectors have them in their collections along with the other type of Double Eagle, the St. Gaudens $20 Double Eagle.
The 1881 Double Eagle is interesting on two fronts. First, its obvious low mintage, and, second, that this low mintage occurred in Philadelphia.
In 1881 there were only 2,199 Double Eagles struck in Philadelphia. This was due to the Philadelphia mint focusing more on the lower denomination of gold coins. To put this mintage in perspective, in 1881 the San Francisco mint struck 727,000 Double Eagles for circulation. Of the 727,000 Double Eagles that came from San Francisco it is estimated that almost 10,000 of them are in collectors hands, whereas, there are only 67 known 1881 Philadelphia Double Eagles available to collectors.
Unfortunately, for the coin that I purchased, it was cleaned at one time in the past. This is known due to the hairline scratches that were left behind from the person that cleaned it. It used to be commonplace to clean coins, but, every modern collector agrees that coins should not be cleaned. Here is a post I made Should You Clean Coins? that discusses this topic. Overall I am very happy with this coin purchase, issues and all!