1887-S Liberty Head Double Eagle. MS-63 (ICG).
Gorgeous green-gold and golden-rose color blankets both sides of this sharply defined, very well preserved 1887-S twenty. Fully lustrous and frosty with abundant eye appeal. Just 283,000 double eagles were struck at the San Francisco Mint in 1887. Although this is not a particularly small mintage in an absolute sense, it marked the lowest production for double eagles coined at the San Francisco facility during the 1880s. As recently as 1982, David W. Akers considered the 1887-S to be scarce in Uncirculated condition, and Mint State examples appeared in fewer than 10% of the major auction sales that he surveyed in preparation of his landmark double eagle treatise. Later in 2004, when Q. David Bowers authored his Guide Book of Double Eagles, the situation was completely different, as thousands of Uncirculated examples from overseas bank reserves had come to light, and were repatriated in American collections. Today, the more generous estimates place the Uncirculated population above the 3,000-coin figure. On the other hand, the finest that most collections can muster for the 1887-S is an MS-62. In MS-63 this issue is scarce, and it remains exceedingly rare any finer. Indeed, this is a Condition Census offering that represents a significant find for the quality conscious gold collector.
PCGS# 9007. NGC ID: 26BS.