Heritage World Coin Auctions
FUN Signature US Coin Sale 1251 4-6 & 8-9 Jan 2017
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Saint-Gaudens Double Eagles
1908 $20 No Motto, Wells Fargo Nevada, MS68 PCGS. Ex: Wells Fargo Nevada Gold. During the 1930s, most of the double eagles that escaped the melting pots in any significant quantities were coins stored away in foreign bank vaults, residual caches from years of trade with the United States. But most of those pieces were frequently jostled, inventoried, and moved in bags, resulting in heavy abrasions to the coins. An exception, however, was the Wells Fargo Hoard, a stockpile of nearly 20,000 1908 No Motto Saints that came to a Nevada bank in 1917. Locked up in a vault, the coins were forgotten throughout the gold confiscation period and are not known to have been touched or moved for the better part of a century, until they were brought into the public's eye in the 1990s. The Wells Fargo Hoard contained primarily pristine or nearly pristine coins, a truly remarkable thing considering the fact that these pieces were stored in 1,000-coin bags just like the foreign trade coins.
The present piece is among the finer-known examples from the hoard, with only 10 MS69s graded finer (11/16). The motifs are well-defined, and neither side exhibits a single distracting abrasion. Satiny wheat-gold luster glistens with originality. A beautiful No Motto type coin.
1908 $20 No Motto, Wells Fargo Nevada, MS68 PCGS. Ex: Wells Fargo Nevada Gold. During the 1930s, most of the double eagles that escaped the melting pots in any significant quantities were coins stored away in foreign bank vaults, residual caches from years of trade with the United States. But most of those pieces were frequently jostled, inventoried, and moved in bags, resulting in heavy abrasions to the coins. An exception, however, was the Wells Fargo Hoard, a stockpile of nearly 20,000 1908 No Motto Saints that came to a Nevada bank in 1917. Locked up in a vault, the coins were forgotten throughout the gold confiscation period and are not known to have been touched or moved for the better part of a century, until they were brought into the public's eye in the 1990s. The Wells Fargo Hoard contained primarily pristine or nearly pristine coins, a truly remarkable thing considering the fact that these pieces were stored in 1,000-coin bags just like the foreign trade coins.
The present piece is among the finer-known examples from the hoard, with only 10 MS69s graded finer (11/16). The motifs are well-defined, and neither side exhibits a single distracting abrasion. Satiny wheat-gold luster glistens with originality. A beautiful No Motto type coin.