1854 Large Date $20.00 NGC AU55

Large Date variety. After years of neglect, the 1854 Large Date has been acknowledged as one of the rarest Philadelphia Type One double eagles. It is screamingly rare in Uncirculated and nice AU55 to AU58 examples are about as high up on the ladder as most collectors can hope for. This attractive example was recently found in Europe (where you can imagine it was sold as a "common" variety) and it is one of the cleanest 1854 Large Dates that I have seen with just a few light, unobtrusive marks scattered in the fields. The color is a pleasing light to medium green-gold and this is exactly the "right" hue for the issue. This issue cracked the $10,000 mark in AU55 about five years ago and while other coins of comparable scarcity (1854-S and 1859, to name two) have exploded in value, this hasn't risen to the degree it should.

All 1854 Large Date double eagles can be identified by the presence of an obverse die clash that looks like a "spray" at the third curl from the bottom. There is also a raised die dot towards the truncation that can be seen even on well-worn examples.