"PERFECT" AU58 1857-S SSCA DOUBLE EAGLE

Variety 20B, Bold S. SSCA #2846. Original gold label holder.

I was tasked by RYK to locate the best AU58 shipwreck example of this popular date I could find. His prescient conclusion was the select coins from this wreck which were graded as such represented the best value among the thousands of double eagles salvaged from the SS Central America.

I think I did a pretty good job locating this coin for RYK. It has the naked-eye appearance of an MS64 with virtually full Mint luster, very clean surfaces and nice glowing yellow-gold color with a bit of darker color at the rims. As I told RYK, here is a coin priced at half the amount of a ubiquitous MS65 and with nearly the same overall appearance.

A non-CAC AU58 example of this issue (in the original holder) last sold for $4,714 as Heritage 2/17: 4021. A CAC approved example brought $5,170 as Stacks Bowers 2016 ANA: 2437 and another slightly nicer piece sold for $5,758 as the next lot in the same sale.

A really sensible way to buy an important and desirable shipwreck double eagle.

CAC has approved 21 in this grade with 56 finer.

FROM THE RYK "DOG" COLLECTION.