1876 was a time of great celebration as America was celebrating its centennial. At the celebrations in Philadelphia, Alexander Graham Bell demonstrated his telephone, which he described as an "apparatus for transmitting vocal or other sounds telegraphically," changing the world as we know it. 1876 also was the last year of the Type II double eagle reverse. The Type II design was created in 1866 when the motto IN GOD WE TRUST was added to the reverse in small letters surrounded by an oval of stars, while retaining the Type I design's value indication as TWENTY D. Coming on the heels of the Civil War, many Type II double eagles served on the front lines of a recovering economy. Taken on the whole, Type II double eagles are the scarcest variety and by far the most difficult type to obtain at the Gem Mint State grade level or finer for the denomination. Fortunately, some issues are available to some degree courtesy of large hoards returning to the United States after an extended sojourn in Europe of South America where gold was required for international trade.

Such is the case with the 1876-S double eagles. With just under 1.6 million pieces struck, the 1876-S has one of the highest mintages of any of the Type II double eagles. As with many of the coins struck at San Francisco, the double eagles entered circulation immediately where they served heavy use both domestically and abroad. When the large foreign gold holdings began to make their way back stateside, numerous uncirculated examples of the 1876-S appeared in numismatic circles to the tune of roughly 2,000 to 3,000 pieces, but mostly heavily bagmarked or otherwise impaired as is typically seen from such specimens. While Type I double eagles can be found Gem thanks to major shipwreck finds and Type III double eagles survive in greater numbers including Gem Mint State pieces, Type II coins are not so fortunate. Many issues are unknown at the Gem level, making assembling such a specialist collection nigh impossible and even obtaining an example for a superb type set is challenging.

The example to the left was sold by Stack's Bowers Galleries in the March 2017 Baltimore Auction, where it realized $105,750.