A 1907 ultra high relief $20 Double Eagle featuring a rare font has sold for $1.1m at Heritage Auctions' US Coins Signature Auction.
The Proof 58 PCGS-graded coin is one of just two examples that contain the sans serif font along the edge - an early feature that was not continued in later strikes.
 Just two 1907 $20 ultra high reliefs feature sans serif writing along the edge |
The 1907 $20 gold coins were the first designed by Irish-born sculptor August Saint-Gaudens, yet problems in producing the ultra high relief pieces saw just 22-24 examples struck.
Saint-Gaudens had foreseen difficulties in producing the coins, as he detailed in a letter to the US treasury secretary Leslie Mortier Shaw a year earlier.
"I think it would be best to know at once if there are not some inflexible modern requirements that necessitate extreme flatness," he wrote.
The result follows the $2.8m sale in June of a Proof 69 PCGS-graded example, testament to the considerable importance collectors attach to condition.
A high relief, flat rim version of the 1907 coin, graded Mint State 64 NGC, sold for $64,625 at the same August 3 auction.
The sale also featured a strong performance from an 1802 proof Draped Bust $1. The PR 65 Cameo PCGS coin sold for $851,875, while a 1921 Saint-Gaudens $20 made $587,500. The Mint State 65 PCGS coin is one of just four versions to achieve the 65 grade or higher.
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