US $20 Gold Double Eagle Coin (Replica)

Description

1860 Civil War $20 Gold Double Eagle Coin
24K Gold Plated Reproduction with case.

This is a replica of the last $20 Gold Piece issued under the authority of the Old Union!

But why is there only one eagle on the Double Eagle coin!!  Well, up until the time of the California Gold Rush in 1849, gold coins were only minted in denominations of $2.50 (1/4 Eagle), $5.00 (Half-Eagle), with the highest domination minted being the $10.00 coin or Eagle!  Once the $20 coin was struck beginning in ’49 the sobriquet, Double Eagle, soon entered common use.

In 1860, $20 would buy you just about $500 worth of goods today.  Oddly, the amount of gold contained within an actual $20 Double Eagle is worth about $1,860 today.  Therefore, if one could afford it, gold coins were often carried into battle by soldiers and sailors as a good luck piece or sewn into the lining of their clothing in the event of capture!  So one can easily see that such a coin could make a guard look the other way, or provide food, shelter, and transportation for an escaped Prisoner of War or, do I dare say, a deserter; not to not to mention just how far $500 in purchasing power could go, especially in war time, and even more so in the South!!!!

Beyond that, in some cases, $20 made the difference between lying in an unmarked grave or having your remains identified and shipped back home to those you love!  All of which made gold coins like this the prime target of battlefield scavengers!  Why, even military burial parties searched every stitch of clothing they could find for hidden gold.  In addition, coins like this were surely among the hoard of coins and bars the Confederate Treasury shipped south with Jefferson Davis in the closing days of the War!

And lastly, the most famous 1860 $20 Double Eagle of all was found inside the CSS Hunley, having been in the possession of its commander Lt. George Dixon. The coin, a good luck piece given to him by his wife, deflected a bullet at the Battle of Shiloh, saving the Lieutenant’s life. Until the Hunley was raised the coin, with the bullet mark clearly visible, was thought to be a myth and is now among the most prized and valuable of all Civil War Artifacts!

If you are a Civil War Reenactor, military of civilian, you can’t be without such a icon of the period!

This reproduction 24k gold plated coin measures 1 5/16 (33mm) x 1/8″ (3mm) an weighs in at .7 oz (approximately the weight of 4 US Quarter Dollars).