The 1862-S $20 double eagle is a challenging issue to obtain with good overall quality, as the obverse tends to exhibit a general softness to all elements and the luster can be grainy or rough in some cases. Examples of this San Francisco mint coin are readily available in circulated condition, with a particular concentration of pieces in Extremely Fine grades. AU examples were once considered very scarce before quantities were found on the shipwrecks of the SS Republic and the SS Brother Jonathan, contributing to about 500 coins in total at that grade level. Fewer coins were recovered in Mint State, however, and just 60-80 Uncirculated pieces remain.

We wrote the following in our April 2022 Auction Catalog, saying: "While the economic repercussions of the Civil War resulted in a sharp decrease in double eagle production at the Philadelphia Mint beginning in 1862, the San Francisco Mint remained busy churning out generous numbers of these coins. Records state that 854,173 examples were struck at the California facility. These coins circulated on the West Coast in an era in which they were not seen in commerce in the East and Midwest. Although less than 1/2 of 1% of the mintage for the 1862-S is extant, circulated examples exist in such numbers -- Bowers (2004) says 2,500 to 3,500 pieces -- that locating one should be relatively easy under normal market conditions. The same cannot be said for Mint State survivors, however, which exist to the extent of just 70 to 80 pieces. A fair number of the Uncirculated coins entered the market recently from shipwreck treasures such as those of the S.S. Brother Jonathan and S.S. Republic, although we stress that most examples recovered from those sources are circulated to one degree or another."

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 $66,000.