Lot 3546
1931 $20 St. Gaudens. PCGS graded MS-66. PCGS #11617030. Well struck with rich golden toning on both sides. Among the finest known. A very rare date. Since virtually the entire collector holdings for 1931 falls into the Mint State range, observation tells us that this date never reached general circulation. Most of the 2,938,250 pieces originally minted were melted by the government and today the 1931 is comparable in overall rarity to the equally respected 1932.
Among Saint-Gaudens pieces, the 1931 is considered as one of the top seven rarities in the series. Note that the population statistics by the grading services can sometimes be ambiguous since the same coin may have been submitted to both services at different times, or to the same service multiple times thus affecting the published figures. Be that as it may, only a few better-quality specimens have been auctioned in recent years, with this handsome MS66 among the most eye-catching and beautiful, the very sort of coin to handle the situation when numerous bidders show up at an auction hankering to bid. Pop 9; 1 in 67 (PCGS # 9192) .
Two events, completely separate from the issue of this rare double eagle, but worth mentioning all the same, occurred in 1931: The Star Spangled Banner was adopted as the United States National anthem, and a foreign-born gentleman with a thick Hungarian accent, Béla Ferenc Dezso Blaskó (October 20, 1882 -- August 16, 1956), but better known to us as Béla Lugosi, went on to fame (and fleeting fortune) on the silver screen with the airing of the 1931 original film version of Dracula.
Estimated Value $120,000 - 140,000.
The Dr. Robert Hesselgesser Collection.
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| Realized $143,750 |
