The 1861-O $20 Double Eagle is another good example of a "story coin,” one of several in the series of Type 1 double eagles issued from 1849 to 1866. These were minted under three authorities: 5,000 by the federal government, 9,750 by the State of Louisiana and 2,991 by the Confederate States of America. Most examples are weakly struck across the obverse and exhibit a prooflike reflectivity, though on some examples this reflectivity has been dampened by efforts at conservation or mishandling. A historically significant issue, just 150 to 175 examples are thought to remain in all grades. Most pieces are heavily worn and are encountered in VF to EF condition, with an estimated three dozen AU coins available to collectors. Doug Winter suspects that there are just 3-5 unique Mint State specimens in existence, the finest of which are represented by a pair of NGC-graded MS-62s, though they may be the same coin.

The desirability of the 1861-O double eagle is well established in numismatic circles and stems from two important characteristics of this issue. First, the 1861-O is a scarce issue in all grades with fewer than 175 survivors from a mintage of 17,741 pieces. Based on this estimate Doug Winter (Gold Coins of the New Orleans Mint: 1839-1909, 2006 edition) ranks the 1861-O seventh in rarity among the 13 New Orleans Mint issues in the Liberty Head double eagle series, ahead of the 1850-O, 1851-O, 1852-O, 1853-O, 1857-O and 1858-O.

Second, the mintage for the 1861-O comprises coins that were struck under three different governments -- a unique occurrence in the Liberty Head double eagle series and a circumstance that has affected few other issues throughout U.S. coinage history. The mintage for the 1861-O can be divided as follows:

-January 1-26, 1861: 5,000 coins struck under the authority of the United States of America

-January 26-March 31, 1861: 9,750 coins struck under the authority of the State of Louisiana after it seceded from the Union and took over control of the New Orleans Mint

-April 1-30, 1861: 2,991 coins struck under the authority of the Confederate States of America after Louisiana joined the Southern Confederacy

Production of the 1861-O, therefore, closely followed the shifting political landscape of the nation during the months leading up to the outbreak of armed hostilities that started the Civil War. The close association of this issue with the Confederate States of America, in particular, confirms its desirability among specialized collectors, for the 1861-O double eagle is one of the few regular issue coins produced by that short-lived government.

All 1861-O double eagles were struck using a single pair of dies, however, and even the pieces produced by the Southern Confederacy bear the legend UNITED STATES OF AMERICA as part of the reverse design. The staff in the New Orleans Mint simply had no other way of creating or otherwise obtaining new dies after the facility left Union control, and it was forced to use what tools were on hand to strike limited quantities of coins before the supply of bullion became exhausted.

How, then, do numismatists differentiate between those coins struck by the Union, the State of the Louisiana, and the Confederate States of America? The process is imprecise and somewhat conjectural, but Doug Winter has identified a late die state of this variety (Die State III) with a bold date and an obverse die crack (as made) from the rim outside star 2 to Liberty's chin. He believes that those late die state examples were struck by the Confederate State of America, and we see no reason to doubt that attribution.

The example to the left was sold by Stack's Bowers Galleries in August 2022 as part of the Fairmont Collection, JBR Set, where it realized $96,000.