$20 Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle Value

Why most Saints sell above their gold

A Saint-Gaudens double eagle holds 0.9675 troy ounces of gold, but it is also pre-1933 U.S. gold, and that history adds value. Even worn common dates usually bring a markup over melt, while scarce dates and high grades are priced as collectibles.

Where the odd 0.9675 comes from

The number isn’t random. From 1837 until 1933 the U.S. valued gold at $20.67 per troy ounce, and a $20 coin was built to hold $20 worth of gold at that rate: 20 ÷ 20.67 = 0.9675 oz. Add 10% copper for hardness and you get the standard 33.436 g coin at .900 fine.

A president’s commission

The coin exists because Theodore Roosevelt wanted American coinage to look like ancient Greek work. He asked the sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens for a new $20 design. Liberty strides forward with a torch and an olive branch, the Capitol behind her; on the reverse an eagle flies above a rising sun. Saint-Gaudens died in August 1907, before regular production began, and Mint engravers adapted his models for mass striking.

The High Relief coins needed several blows of the press each and wouldn’t stack, which is why the Mint flattened the design for regular production. A handful of even deeper Ultra High Relief patterns were also struck in 1907. In 2009 the U.S. Mint finally produced the Ultra High Relief as intended, as a smaller one-ounce .9999 gold coin dated MMIX.

Executive Order 6102 and the 1933 coin

On April 5, 1933, Executive Order 6102 required Americans to turn in most gold coin, gold bullion and gold certificates. People could keep up to $100 in gold coin, plus coins of recognized special value to collectors. The Gold Reserve Act of 1934 followed and raised the official price to $35 an ounce, and huge numbers of double eagles were melted into bars. Private ownership of gold bullion only became legal again on December 31, 1974.

The 1933 double eagle

The Mint struck 1933-dated Saints but never officially released them. Only one example has ever been legal for a private owner to hold; it sold at auction in 2002 and again in 2021. Others that surfaced were seized by the government.

How so many survived

Many of the Saints on the market today survived because they sat in foreign bank vaults, shipped abroad in earlier decades to settle trade balances, and came back to the United States over the following years. That supply is why common dates are plentiful even though so many were destroyed at home.

• 1907 High Relief: the first-year sculptural version, always priced as a collectible.
• 1921 and 1927-D: famous rarities, rarely seen outside major auctions.
• 1929 through 1932: struck in quantity but mostly melted, so survivors are scarce.
• 1908 No Motto from Philadelphia and the common 1920s Philadelphia dates: the usual source of “generic” Saints.

How generic Saints are priced

In the trade, a generic Saint is any common date bought and sold on grade alone, with no attention to the specific year. Most Saints that change hands are generics. Their price has two parts: the gold, and a premium tied to the grade on the holder.

46 stars or 48

Count the small stars around the obverse rim. Coins from 1907 through 1911 have 46, one for each state at the time. From 1912 the Mint added two more for New Mexico and Arizona, which joined the Union that year. The change doesn’t alter gold content, but it’s a quick check that a coin’s date and design agree, and a mismatch is a sign of a crude fake.

Bag marks

Double eagles were heavy and moved in bulk sacks between mints, banks and vaults. Coins rubbing against each other left small nicks called bag marks, most visible on Liberty’s body and in the open field. They are the main reason an uncirculated Saint grades MS62 rather than MS65, and why a coin with clean surfaces earns a higher premium.

Worked example: comparing a Saint with a Gold Eagle

1. Work out the Saint’s gold: 0.9675 oz. At an example price of $2,500 per ounce, that is $2,418.75.
2. A 1 oz Gold Eagle at the same example price holds $2,500 of gold, 3.25% more.
3. Compare the two asking prices per ounce of gold, not per coin: divide each price by its fine content.
4. The difference that’s left is what you’re paying for the Saint’s history and grade.

Buyers who want the same Liberty design in modern bullion form can compare with the Gold Eagle, which uses a reworked version of Saint-Gaudens’ obverse.

Checking a Saint before paying a premium

1. Weigh it: 33.436 g is the standard, and even worn coins lose only a fraction of a gram.
2. Measure the diameter: 34 mm.
3. Read the edge. A Saint has raised lettering, E PLURIBUS UNUM separated by stars, not reeding.
4. Find the mint mark above the date on the obverse: D for Denver, S for San Francisco, none for Philadelphia.
5. For any coin priced well above melt, insist on third-party certification, since counterfeit pre-1933 gold exists and some fakes are struck in real gold.

Why a genuine-gold fake is still a problem

A counterfeit Saint made from .900 gold passes every weight and magnet test. The forger profits on the collector premium, not the metal. That’s why a slabbed coin from a major grading service is the normal way generic Saints trade, and why raw coins get lower bids.

The earlier Liberty Head $20 holds exactly the same gold and followed the same standard for 57 years before this design replaced it.

For gold’s long-run path from $20.67 onward, the gold price history page covers the decades since the gold standard ended.

Melt value on any Saint moves with the gold price today, so a generic coin’s floor rises and falls daily even when its collector premium stays put.

Selling a Saint you inherited

Ask each buyer whether the bid is for gold content or for the coin. A raw common-date Saint is often bought close to melt plus a small premium, while the same coin in a grading holder may bring more. Submitting a coin for grading costs a fee and takes weeks, so it tends to make sense only when the coin looks uncirculated or the date is one of the scarce ones listed above. All U.S. and world coins are compared on the coins overview.