This Gem 1857-S Double Eagle Survived a Hurricane and 131 Years Beneath the Atlantic
Some rare coins survive history. Others seem to survive the impossible.
This 1857-S Liberty Head Double Eagle, graded MS-65 by PCGS, carries the distinctive Spiked Shield reverse variety. More importantly, AU Capital Management is offereing the coin from the wreck of the S.S. Central America, the legendary “Ship of Gold.”
That gives this $20 gold piece an extraordinary story.
It left the San Francisco Mint during the California Gold Rush. It traveled east with California gold. Then a hurricane swallowed the ship carrying it. The coin spent more than a century on the Atlantic floor before treasure hunters located the wreck.
Yet today, its surfaces remain remarkably clean.
That combination of history, variety, and Gem Mint State preservation makes this 1857-S double eagle far more than another high-grade Type I $20 gold piece. It represents one of the greatest intersections of American numismatics, the Gold Rush, maritime history, and financial history.
Fresh Gold From the California Gold Rush
The San Francisco Mint had opened only three years earlier, in 1854. Congress established the branch mint so the government could convert the enormous flow of California gold into federal coinage closer to its source.
By 1857, the Mint operated at full Gold Rush tempo.
That year, San Francisco struck 970,500 Liberty Head Double Eagles. Each contained 0.9675 troy ounce of gold. At $20 per coin, the denomination offered an efficient way to move large sums across a nation that still lacked a transcontinental railroad.
James Barton Longacre’s Type I design featured Liberty on the obverse and a heraldic eagle with shield on the reverse. The coin weighed 33.40 grams, measured 34 millimeters across, and contained 90% gold and 10% copper.
However, this particular double eagle carries something extra.
The Spiked Shield Variety
Turn the coin over and look closely at the shield on the eagle’s breast.
The Spiked Shield, cataloged as Variety-20A, takes its nickname from prominent raised projections associated with the reverse die. Heritage has described two small “tines” that pierce the shield’s left edge. The feature stands out clearly enough that collectors can recognize the variety without hunting for a microscopic marker.
That matters.
Die varieties offer a physical record of the minting process. In this case, the Spiked Shield gives collectors something more specific than an 1857-S date and mintmark. It connects the coin to a particular working die and a particular moment inside the young San Francisco Mint.
Moreover, the variety appears frequently among the 1857-S double eagles recovered from the S.S. Central America. PCGS recognizes the Spiked Shield separately under PCGS #70000.
Then history intervened.
The Voyage That Became a National Tragedy
California gold headed east by an extraordinary route in 1857.
Ships carried passengers and treasure from San Francisco to Panama. Travelers and cargo then crossed the isthmus by the recently completed Panama Railroad. From Aspinwall, now Colón, another steamship carried them toward Havana and New York.
In August 1857, the steamship Sonora departed San Francisco with millions of dollars in California gold. Handlers moved the treasure across Panama and loaded it aboard the side-wheel steamer S.S. Central America.
Commander William Lewis Herndon, a U.S. Navy officer, captained the vessel.
After leaving Havana, the Central America encountered a powerful hurricane. The storm battered the ship for days. Water overwhelmed its pumping system. Passengers and crew formed bucket brigades and fought desperately to keep the vessel afloat.
Finally, on September 12, 1857, Herndon ordered rescuers to take women and children first. He remained aboard as the ship went down. The disaster claimed about 425 lives.
The ocean also swallowed tons of California gold.
And somewhere among that treasure sat thousands of freshly minted 1857-S double eagles.
Gold Vanishes Into the Atlantic
The loss came at an especially dangerous moment for the American economy.
Financial markets had already begun to unravel during the Panic of 1857. Banks needed specie. Instead, a major shipment of California gold disappeared beneath the Atlantic.
Historians therefore regard the sinking as more than a maritime catastrophe. The lost shipment intensified an existing crisis of confidence in American banking and finance.
For numismatics, however, the story took another remarkable turn.
The wreck rested roughly 8,000 feet below the Atlantic for more than a century. Treasure hunters finally located it in 1988, 131 years after the sinking. Using advanced underwater technology, recovery teams began bringing gold back to the surface.
Among the treasure came an astonishing group of 1857-S double eagles.
PCGS CoinFacts records 5,193 examples of the 1857-S $20 from the S.S. Central America treasure. Their arrival radically changed how collectors understood the issue. Before the recovery, collectors rarely encountered San Francisco Type I Double Eagles in high Mint State grades. Suddenly, collectors could study coins that had escaped generations of commercial circulation.
That transformation makes the Central America one of the most important shipwreck discoveries in American numismatic history.
Why This MS-65 Stands Out
Not every S.S. Central America double eagle looks alike.
Large gold coins can show contact marks even when they never circulated. Coins moved in bags, boxes, and stacks. Their considerable weight allowed one coin to mark another.
Therefore, exceptionally clean Gem surfaces matter.
AU Capital Management describes this PCGS MS-65 example as exceptionally well preserved. Rich satin luster covers both sides. Rose-gold color dominates the surfaces, while deeper shades develop toward the borders. Meanwhile, the strike delivers bold detail across Longacre’s design.
Most notably, the fields show remarkably few distractions for a double eagle of this size and age.
AUCM also states that a 2024 Stack’s Bowers listing traced the coin to the S.S. Central America, although the current PCGS insert does not carry that provenance. The coin bears PCGS certification number 34803572.
A related population point also requires some historical context. In a 2024 Stack’s Bowers offering of an MS-65 Spiked Shield example, the PCGS population data then showed 619 coins in MS-65 with 158 finer for the applicable Spiked Shield category. Population reports change as grading services certify, regrade, and reholder coins. Therefore, collectors should treat those figures as a 2024 snapshot rather than a permanent total.
Why This 1857-S Double Eagle Matters
Collectors can approach this coin from several directions.
A Liberty Head gold specialist sees a Gem Type I Double Eagle. A variety collector sees the easily recognized Spiked Shield. A California Gold Rush collector sees freshly coined San Francisco gold. A shipwreck enthusiast sees tangible evidence from one of America’s most famous maritime disasters.
Yet the condition may tell the most compelling story of all.
This coin dates to 1857. It crossed the American continent. It entered the hold of a steamship bound for New York. A hurricane sent that ship to the bottom of the Atlantic. The coin remained beneath thousands of feet of water for generations.
And today it grades MS-65.
Few objects compress that much American history into 34 millimeters of gold.
AU Capital Management, headed by President and CEO Russell Augustin, currently lists the coin among its U.S. gold offerings. Augustin established AUCM in 2005 after entering the numismatic field in 1982. Make sure you visit the AUCM website for more amzing us coin rarities.
For the next collector, however, the attraction goes beyond pedigree or grade.
The 1857-S Spiked Shield Double Eagle offers something far harder to manufacture: a direct physical connection to the California Gold Rush, a famous lost treasure, and a night when American history disappeared beneath the Atlantic.
Coin Specifications
- Country: United States
- Denomination: $20 Double Eagle
- Year: 1857
- Mint: San Francisco
- Mintmark: S
- Type: Liberty Head Double Eagle, Type I
- Variety: Variety-20A, Spiked Shield
- Designer: James Barton Longacre
- Strike: Business Strike
- Mintage: 970,500
- Composition: 90% gold, 10% copper
- Gold Content: 0.9675 troy ounce
- Weight: 33.40 grams
- Diameter: 34.00 mm
- Edge: Reeded
- Grade: PCGS MS-65
- PCGS Certification: 34803572
- Reported Provenance: S.S. Central America
- Current Seller: AU Capital Management
