The 1859 $20 double eagle is the lowest mintage Type 1 Liberty Head double eagle from the Philadelphia Mint. A new obverse hub was employed this year that featured designer James B. Longacre's initials further to the left on Liberty's truncation, in addition to modifications made to Liberty's hair curls and portrait. This hub was used through the end of the Type I design type in 1866. Examples of this issue are generally well-struck, but are often heavily abraded. Most examples are heavily worn and are confined to VF and EF grades. Choice AU survivors are legitimately rare and come to auction only two to three times per year, on average. There are just an estimated 6 to 8 coins remaining in Mint State, the finest of which grade MS-62. Of the 80 Proofs reportedly struck, only eight or nine coins can be accounted for today.

We wrote the following in our April 2022 Auction Catalog, saying: "With just 43,597 circulation strikes produced, the 1859 has the second lowest mintage among Philadelphia Mint double eagles of the Type I Liberty Head design. Douglas Winter and Adam Crum (An Insider's Guide to Collecting Type I Double Eagles, 2002) mention just three of four Uncirculated coins that surfaced during the late 1990s. Obviously, the 1859 has not benefited from any shipwreck or similar finds that increased the availability of issues such as the 1857-S and 1865-S. Only 350 or so coins are believed extant, most of which are in circulated grades such as VF and EF. Mint State survivors remain of the utmost rarity."

The example to the left was sold by Stack's Bowers Galleries in April 2022 as part of the Fairmont Collection, Hendricks Set, where it realized $72,000.