Liberty $20 Gold Coins

The American Double Eagles were well known as the gold pieces representing American wealth for 84 years with their usage in large transactions as one would with money. But today, the US $20 gold coin holds only intrinsic and personal value for its owner.

You can still find a sample of this gold coin in the US Smithsonian National Collection that was produced in 1849. It was only in 1950 that these coins were produced for circulation as currency; this first batch was known as ‘No Motto’ or Type One.

Since then, many variations have been minted. Each $20 gold piece today holds its own distinct worth based on its grade and its rarity factor.

Type One $20 Liberty

Type-One or ‘No Motto’ $20 Liberty coins were produced between 1850 and 1866. There were not many variations of these $20 gold coins by the Philadelphia Mint.

5,000 ‘No Motto’ coins have been discovered at 8,000 feet below sea level from a sunken ship which were minted in 1857 and are still in superb condition. With many years of legal tussle, the 5,000 Liberty coins were auctioned off very quickly, making it one of the fastest numismatic gold coin sales in history.

Type Two Liberty

The Type Two $20 Liberty gold coins were minted between 1866 and 1876 with a motto ‘In God We Trust’ on the back of the coin. A total of 3,336 pieces of $20 Liberty Type Two gold coins were graded as mint state in March 2000 with 31 pieces graded highly as MS64 and 3 pieces graded as MS65; this causes the pieces to be of the highest mint quality causing more to be interested in the MS63 grade pieces.

Type Three $20 Liberty

Type Three Liberty coins were produced between 1877 and 1907 with a simple change of design. Instead of ‘TWENTY D’ on the coin, it was minted ‘TWENTY DOLLARS’; the change was considered minor but it was considered a significant change for numismatic coin buyers.
There are enough of Type Three Liberty $20 gold coins to trade on a daily basis. Compared to the other types which have many less known to exist and therefore do not trade as regularly.

More Type Three Liberty coins exist from the year 1904 than those of any other year, therefore the 1904P is considered to be a common date. Some Type Three Liberty coins that were minted before 1900 are very rare and therefore come to market only so often.