In January 1986, a model new Cadillac El Dorado value $24,251, or $1,150 greater than coin collector Bernard Richards paid for an 1870-CC $20 gold coin in a Stack’s Uncommon Cash public sale that month. On Monday, November 25, 2024, successor agency Stack’s Bowers Galleries offered the identical coin for $1,440,000, a strong annualized return on his funding of 11.49%. The Cadillac coupe is price about $3,600 at this time.
The 1870-CC $20 double eagle is without doubt one of the marquee rarities amongst United States gold cash. The $20 denomination traces its lineage on to the invention of gold in California in 1848, an occasion that eternally altered the trajectory of American historical past. Whereas the Founding Fathers envisioned no coin bigger than a $10 gold eagle, the invention of large gold deposits in California impressed the United States Congress to authorize the manufacturing of a gold coin that was twice as massive to facilitate turning California’s golden riches into spendable and countable cash. The denomination was approved in 1849 and first struck for circulation in 1850.
In 1870, a department mint was established in Carson Metropolis, Nevada to reply the same have to convert metallic riches into cash: the invention of Nevada’s famed Comstock Lode, the most important deposit of silver in North America. Whereas the mint within the capital of the brand new state of Nevada was constructed primarily to strike silver cash, sufficient gold was found in smaller deposits in locations like Nevada, Montana, and Utah to necessitate native manufacturing of gold cash as nicely. The yr the mint opened, solely 3,789 double eagles had been struck, every bearing a tiny CC mark on the reverse to symbolize their mint of origin.
At present, only some dozen cash from that subject survive, seemingly numbering between 40 and 50. Most noticed arduous use within the commerce of the Previous West that left them worn, nicked, or broken. The Bernard Richards specimen is usually acclaimed because the most interesting extant survivor, receiving a grade of About Uncirculated 55 from PCGS.
Mr. Richards, a building firm government from Brooklyn, fashioned a group of uncommon gold cash within the Seventies and Nineteen Eighties as a interest, one in all many he pursued starting from stamps to tennis to taking part in the harmonica. His heirs had little concept that their father’s weekend avocation represented an funding past their wildest goals. At press time, 48 of the 173 double eagles Richards collected have been offered for a grand complete of $3,733,080, a high-quality payday for a interest Richards loved immensely.
To view outcomes from the Stack’s Bowers Galleries November 2024 Rarities Night Session in addition to the 1870-CC $20, go to StacksBowers.com. To inquire about consigning to one of many agency’s upcoming auctions name 800-458-4646 or electronic mail [email protected].
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