One of two or three 1898 double eagles designed prooflike by NGC.

With each new acquisition for the Grandview Collection of Liberty Double Eagles in 2013, I plan to describe the coin and relevant background information with a journal post.

When I first saw this coin offered, I suspected there was an error in the listing. I initially thought it was a prooflike S-mint twenty, because the 1898-S $20 in PL is tied with the 1904-S $20 as the second most frequently encountered prooflike twenty. For each of these dates there are just under 100 prooflike examples designated by NGC. By far the most frequently encountered prooflike double eagle is the Philadelphia minted 1904 with 728 examples designated prooflike (or deep mirror prooflike) out of 214,830 submitted to NGC. Thus prooflike examples of this common date represent 0.34% of all 1904 twenties seen by NGC, which is a remarkably small percentage. For all double eagles graded by NGC, the percentage of prooflike coins is even less at 0.27% (based on July 2013 data).

Upon inspection of the images of the 1898 $20 NGC AU58 PL, I confirmed it was a Philly example, which has a relatively low mintage of 170,470. The NGC Census showed 3 coins in all grades with 2 in MS62 and 1 in AU58 (this example). Using the Heritage archives, I researched all of the instances of 1898 twenties sold by Heritage.

The first coin to be designated as PL by NGC was an MS62 example (cert # 302516-012) which was sold by Heritage for $1610 in July 2004, shortly after NGC started designating gold as prooflike. The very same coin in a different holder (cert # 2502877-001), confirmed by tiny rim ding before 11 o'clock, was later sold by Heritage in March 2005 for $2990, and sold again in Aug 2006 for $2990. The two MS62 coins listed in the population reports may be the same coin, leaving the AU58 example as the only other prooflike 1898 double eagle. The AU58 coin was certified between March 2005 and August 2006 based on the Heritage descriptions.

This 1898 $20 NGC AU58 PL is replacing a very attractive, frosty 1898 $20 NGC MS62 CAC which had remarkably clean fields for the grade. While I really enjoy participating in the NGC Registry, I am surprised that the rarity of prooflike coins like the 1898 $20 AU58 PL is not reflected in the scoring system. By going from the MS62 to the AU58 PL, my overall score dropped by 1070 points. The Registry scores for various 1898 double eagles are listed below. I included scores for the common 1898-S twenty as well for reference.

1898 $20 NGC MS62 (630 in MS62 with 197 finer): Registry Score 2124

1898 $20 NGC AU58 PL (1 in AU58 with 1 or 2 finer): Registry Score 1054

1898-S $20 NGC MS62 (8452 in MS62 with 4896 finer): Registry Score 3677

1898-S $20 NGC AU58 PL (0 in AU58 with 97 finer): Registry Score 3297

Images of the 1898 double eagle from Grandview Collection are below.

http://coins.www.collectors-society.com/WCM/CoinView.aspx?PeopleSetCoinID=1574675

The surfaces are relatively free of significant hits, though there are minor abrasions in the open fields on the obverse, which likely account for the AU58 grade. If the coin would have had a frosty texture, rather than reflective surfaces, those abrasions would not even be noticeable, and the coin would have graded at least MS62 or MS63. With the reflective fields, every little hit is really amplified. This coin is well struck and has nice detail on both the obverse and reverse. The coin has not been submitted to CAC.

Grandview Collection

http://coins.www.collectors-society.com/registry/coins/SetListing.aspx?PeopleSetID=106968

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