Encapsulation of the Month
After just more than a decade in use, an improvement to the reverse die of the gold double eagle was produced for first use in 1861. Known as the Paquet reverse — after the assistant engraver during its production, Anthony Paquet — the die was only used for a very short time at the Philadelphia Mint before a production problem was realized; with the narrow border, the coin was now more open to damage from contact with other coins. The mints would revert back to using dies with the previous version of the reverse design. While the Philadelphia Mint stopped using the new die after a few coins had been produced, by the time the San Francisco Mint had received word of the change, several thousand coins had already been issued — creating a rarity among the Liberty $20 series.
This particular example of the 1861 S $20 was recently submitted to NCS for authentication and certification. The authenticators were able to determine that despite the improper cleaning on this example, it was in fact a genuine coin. A misguided attempt in removing the dark color on this coin led to its damaged state. The improper cleaning can be seen most strikingly in this image in the deep scratches around Liberty’s nose where the original surface had been removed, damaging the piece irreversibly.
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