VERY RARE UNCIRCULATED 1870 DOUBLE EAGLE

Along with the 1868, 1869 and 1871 the 1870 is one of four conditionally rare Type Two double eagles from the Philadelphia mint. The 1870 is scarce in the higher About Uncirculated grades and it is rare in Uncirculated with likely no more than two or three dozen known in Uncirculated, mostly in the MS60 to MS62 range. The best I have personally seen is a solitary PCGS MS63 which brought over $40,000 close to a decade ago.

this very choice example is, in my opinion, much closer to being an MS62 than an MS61 and it was tried a number of times at PCGS to upgrade. It is totally original with frosty mint luster beneath even, attractive natural golden-orange color which is “right” for the issue. A few small ticks in the left obverse field limit the grade but, jeez, is this coin ever close to being a full MS62!

A PCGS MS61CAC brought an inexplicable $55,813 in Stacks Bowers 8/14 sale. In the Heritage 2013 ANA auction, an NGC MS61 with CAC approval sold for $27,025.

This date is all but unavailable finer than this and the present example would fir into the finest set of Type Two double eagles>

CAC has approved six with four finer; these figures seem inflated by resubmissions.

Ex Heritage 6/15: 4348 where it sold for $22,325.