Heritage World Coin Auctions
Long Beach Signature US Coin Sale 1252 16-17 Feb 2017
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High Relief Double Eagles
1907 $20 High Relief, Wire Rim MS61 NGC. CAC. In discussing the earlier works of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, biographer Burke Wilkinson wrote of the widespread critical success of the sculptor's first monumental work, The Farragut: "His bas-reliefs were in effect his short stories. Now he had written an epic." The same could be said of his earliest work on cameos in his teens, and his work decades later on the twenty dollar gold coins of 1907. Like the cameos he cut in his teens these pieces established the practice of working in a small area and in high relief, a discipline that would be necessary to produce High Relief double eagles. The three-dimensionality of the double eagles is similar to that on his cameos from the 1860s, giving each a lifelike quality. The surfaces on this piece are unusually clean for the grade (thus the CAC sticker) and the strike is boldly brought up in all areas. Each side is yellow-gold with just a hint of reddish patina.
1907 $20 High Relief, Wire Rim MS61 NGC. CAC. In discussing the earlier works of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, biographer Burke Wilkinson wrote of the widespread critical success of the sculptor's first monumental work, The Farragut: "His bas-reliefs were in effect his short stories. Now he had written an epic." The same could be said of his earliest work on cameos in his teens, and his work decades later on the twenty dollar gold coins of 1907. Like the cameos he cut in his teens these pieces established the practice of working in a small area and in high relief, a discipline that would be necessary to produce High Relief double eagles. The three-dimensionality of the double eagles is similar to that on his cameos from the 1860s, giving each a lifelike quality. The surfaces on this piece are unusually clean for the grade (thus the CAC sticker) and the strike is boldly brought up in all areas. Each side is yellow-gold with just a hint of reddish patina.