Much of the mintage of this Depression-era issue was withheld from circulation and placed in storage, only to later be sent to the crucibles at the Mint during Roosevelt's Bank Holiday of the early 1930s. While a sizeable quantity of 2.9 million coins were struck, just about 125 distinct examples remain for today's collector. Amazingly, virtually all of the 1931 double eagles accounted for today are Mint State, though mostly at grades of MS-64 and lower. The Bowers reference on the series refers to the 1931 as "one of the key issues in the series" and calls it a "classic rarity," two comments that are inescapably accurate. Similarly, specialist David Akers ranked it "second in overall population rarity only to the 1930-S" among the late date issues from 1929 through 1932 when writing in 1988. Of course, the 1933 ranks as the absolute king of this era, but it remains virtually non-collectible.

The example to the left was sold by Stack's Bowers Galleries in the March 2021 Showcase Auction, where it realized $120,000.