EXTREMELY RARE UNCIRCULATED 1862 DOUBLE EAGLE

The 1862 is the second rarest collectible Philadelphia Type One double eagle after the 1859. It is very rare in Uncirculated with at most a dozen known and nearly all of these in the MS60 to MS61 range. I have personally seen or handled no more than three or four in Uncirculated and this is the first Uncirculated 1862 double eagle which I have offered on my website in close to a decade,

This fresh-to-the-market example has never before been offered for sale. It is a strictly Mint State coin with no wear seen on the high spots and full, satiny frost. Both sides are well detailed and show nice light rose and yellow-gold hues. There are a few marks seen in the left obverse field which limit the grade; the reverse is at least an MS62 to MS63 on its own.

I know of only three distinctly finer 1862 double eagles than this: an NGC MS64 (ex Heritage 11/05) in a New England specialized collection, a PCGS MS63 in the Crawford collection and the Bass/Gilded Age PCGS MS62 which sold for $70,500 in the 2014 Stacks Bowers ANA sale. Two NGC MS62′s have sold at auction in the last five years but they were curated shipwreck pieces.

This issue has strong dual demand: both Type One collectors and Civil War specialists crave 1862 double eagles and the supply of nice pieces has always been dwarfed by the demand. This coin is certain to become the centerpiece of an important collection.