NICELY TONED 1854 SMALL DATE DOUBLE EAGLE

Varieties of 1854 Double Eagles are known with a Small Date and a Large Date. The former is far more common than the latter and it can be found in all circulated grades without considerable effort. However, most in AU55 and AU58 slabs are abraded and have no natural color remaining.

This example has extremely nice natural orange-gold color which is deep and even on the obverse and the reverse. The strike is sharp and a good amount of frosty luster can be seen on both sides. There are a few minor scuffs in the left obverse field as well as a mint-made grease stain which runs from outside of star eight to the top of Liberty’s head; the reverse is clean and very choice.

No CAC approved AU55 examples of this date have sold at auction in recent years. A typical quality non-CAC piece in an NGC AU55 holder is worth in the $2,500-2,750 range.

This is one of the more pleasing circulated 1854 Small Date double eagles I have seen and for the small premium I asking for it versus a “typical” piece, it seems like good value.

CAC has approved 10 in this grade with 22 finer.