Double Eagle Auctions

Numiven · April 20, 2025 8:10PM

I've noticed that the numismatic market seems a bit soft overall, espeially with gold trading above $3,350 per ounce and Double Eagle market is soft. I see that with vollectoes and dealers across coin shows.

That said, it’s interesting to see that every Double Eagle listed on GreatCollections seems to be achieving strong, often top-tier prices—even for details-graded coins.

I’ve also been hearing that many collectors and dealers are currently less active in the Double Eagle segment.

Given that, I’m curious—how is GreatCollections consistently able to sell virtually every Double Eagle, including common-date coins like 1904 and 1924s across all grades, at or above current market levels?

I am seeking some explanation.

DisneyFan · April 21, 2025 10:32AM

Could it be the convenience of buying at auction rather than attending a coin show or a coin shop?

Numiven · April 21, 2025 8:48PM

Still, how are details grades getting well over 9% premiums? MS64s are selling over 15%+ premiums.

The general consensus is that Double Eagles premiums are 3% or less.

MFeld · April 21, 2025 10:43PM

@Numiven said:
I've noticed that the numismatic market seems a bit soft overall, espeially with gold trading above $3,350 per ounce and Double Eagle market is soft. I see that with vollectoes and dealers across coin shows.

That said, it’s interesting to see that every Double Eagle listed on GreatCollections seems to be achieving strong, often top-tier prices—even for details-graded coins.

I’ve also been hearing that many collectors and dealers are currently less active in the Double Eagle segment.

Given that, I’m curious—how is GreatCollections consistently able to sell virtually every Double Eagle, including common-date coins like 1904 and 1924s across all grades, at or above current market levels?

I am seeking some explanation.

My explanation is that it appears you might have mischaracterized the strength of the results.

I checked MS65 1924 saints. The sales prices for April were: $3602, $3275, and $3404. And for March they were $3276, $3187 and $3336.

Next, I checked MS62 1904 $20 Liberty’s. The sales prices for April were $3443 and $3355.

I then looked at detail grade 1904 $20 Liberty’s. I found one of $3156 in April and one for $2925 for March.

I’m sure there are many strong results to be found. But the ones I saw look like normal prices to me - far from “virtually every Double Eagle, including common-date coins like 1904 and 1924s across all grades, at or above current market levels”.

PeakRarities · April 22, 2025 4:51AM

@Numiven said:
Still, how are details grades getting well over 9% premiums? MS64s are selling over 15%+ premiums.

The general consensus is that Double Eagles premiums are 3% or less.

I can sell PCGS graded saints in MS-64 between 3-5% depending on quantity. It's not until MS-65 where the premiums would exceed double digits.

As @mfeld noted, I'm not sure how you're calculating your premiums but this past weekends GC results are commensurate with that, considering spot was a bit lower on Sunday. Im seeing final sales between 3300-3450ish.

In fact, anyone selling these coins on GC is leaving quite a bit of money on the table, considering the 10% juice, when the spreads on these coins have been under $100 for some time. With that said, the time it took for these coins to go through the system allowed extra time for spot to rise, but under normal circumstances, generic double eagles are one of the few things that auction format will net the least amount of money out of all sale methods.

Numiven · April 22, 2025 3:57PM

@MFeld said:

@Numiven said:
I've noticed that the numismatic market seems a bit soft overall, espeially with gold trading above $3,350 per ounce and Double Eagle market is soft. I see that with vollectoes and dealers across coin shows.

That said, it’s interesting to see that every Double Eagle listed on GreatCollections seems to be achieving strong, often top-tier prices—even for details-graded coins.

I’ve also been hearing that many collectors and dealers are currently less active in the Double Eagle segment.

Given that, I’m curious—how is GreatCollections consistently able to sell virtually every Double Eagle, including common-date coins like 1904 and 1924s across all grades, at or above current market levels?

I am seeking some explanation.

My explanation is that it appears you might have mischaracterized the strength of the results.

I checked MS65 1924 saints. The sales prices for April were: $3602, $3275, and $3404. And for March they were $3276, $3187 and $3336.

Next, I checked MS62 1904 $20 Liberty’s. The sales prices for April were $3443 and $3355.

I then looked at detail grade 1904 $20 Liberty’s. I found one of $3156 in April and one for $2925 for March.

I’m sure there are many strong results to be found. But the ones I saw look like normal prices to me - far from “virtually every Double Eagle, including common-date coins like 1904 and 1924s across all grades, at or above current market levels”.

The 1924's and 1904's selling over $3275 are well over 9% premium to melt values as of the date of the auctions and Gold's price.

MS64's from 1915, 1925, 1927 etc are all selling for about $3600+ which is 12.5% premium of melt value.

The best is the local coin shops are buying them back at $2,750 flat rate, saying MS64/MS65 has no meaning to them.

GoldFinger1969 · April 22, 2025 7:53PM

I see lots of asking prices way too high and some coins -- higher-graded MS-66's and 67's -- going without any bids.

Been this way for months...the last year even. The rise in gold still hasn't been enough to hit the seller's minimum.

Numiven · April 28, 2025 12:38PM

Paid up 15% above melt value for a 1910 G$20 MS64 CAC in auction - this is way more than the 3%-5% premium everyone is talking about.

Old_Collector · April 28, 2025 1:12PM

@Numiven said:
Paid up 15% above melt value for a 1910 G$20 MS64 CAC in auction - this is way more than the 3%-5% premium everyone is talking about.

1910 G$20 MS64 CAC is a bargain at 15% over melt considering CAC lists its current retail at $5250.

MFeld · April 28, 2025 1:14PM

@Numiven said:
Paid up 15% above melt value for a 1910 G$20 MS64 CAC in auction - this is way more than the 3%-5% premium everyone is talking about.

CAC coins usually bring premiums and i910 isn’t a common date.

That aside, regardless of what you’ve seen and experienced, as a number of us have seen and posted, many $20’s have traded at very small premiums to melt recently. There’s a very good reason many of us have mentioned it - reality.

MFeld · April 28, 2025 1:20PM

Duplicated post deleted.

GoldFinger1969 · February 23, 2026 9:59AM

Interesting commentary from Doug Winter in his recent Top 10 List....he notes that some AU-graded Type 1 Double Eagles which sold at close to a 100% premium a few years ago when gold was much lower....are today trading as bullion coins.

Total cost certainly is more, but if you ARE going to buy gold, the chance to get a special DE as opposed to a modern coin or the usual suspects like 1904s or 1924s.....is probably a nice change of pace.

https://raregoldcoins.com/blog/2025/12/30/10-inexpensive-us-gold-types-to-buy

pcgscacgold · February 23, 2026 10:09AM

The big question is also, how many of the DE's are getting melted? If they are being sold to refineries do those people pull them out and sell them?

Catbert · February 23, 2026 10:19AM

Courtesy alert - 4/2025 thread bumped.

PeakRarities · February 23, 2026 10:31AM

@pcgscacgold said:
The big question is also, how many of the DE's are getting melted? If they are being sold to refineries do those people pull them out and sell them?

No, there's no one to sell them to; that's why they ended up in the crucible. Millions and millions of dollars worth of ratty pre-33 was melted, but we'll never know the figures, and we may or may not even notice it in the retail marketplace. When slabbed 62/63 is selling for 99% or just melt, the highest bid for cleaned and junky circulated gold is the refineries.

pcgscacgold · February 23, 2026 10:32AM

@PeakRarities said:

@pcgscacgold said:
The big question is also, how many of the DE's are getting melted? If they are being sold to refineries do those people pull them out and sell them?

No, there's no one to sell them to; that's why they ended up in the crucible. Millions and millions of dollars worth of ratty pre-33 was melted, but we'll never know the figures, and we may or may not even notice it in the retail marketplace. When slabbed 62/63 is selling for 99% or just melt, the highest bid for cleaned and junky circulated gold is the refineries.

I am talking about Type 1 and Type 2's. If they are selling for melt off they go.

AUHawk · February 23, 2026 10:59AM

I have been tracking and collecting Saints for quite some time. I'm noticing plenty of inventory to be had from common date to semi-key if they are not stickered. However, stickered Saints are hard to find outside of the most common dates and all, including common stickered Saints, are selling for very strong prices. Even 66+ common dates are selling close to $8k. I was at the Long Beach show last week looking for stickered Saints. Out of all the dealers that were at the show there were maybe a dozen PCGS/NGC Saints with green beans and all but 2 were 1924s and 1927s. At the same time there were hundreds, maybe thousands of non stickered saints. Most national dealers are completely out or have limited quantities of stickered Saints. I'm just shocked to see how hot this series with CAC is right now. Quality is scarce and auction prices are the strongest I have seen in quite some time.

PeakRarities · February 23, 2026 11:00AM

@pcgscacgold said:

@PeakRarities said:

@pcgscacgold said:
The big question is also, how many of the DE's are getting melted? If they are being sold to refineries do those people pull them out and sell them?

No, there's no one to sell them to; that's why they ended up in the crucible. Millions and millions of dollars worth of ratty pre-33 was melted, but we'll never know the figures, and we may or may not even notice it in the retail marketplace. When slabbed 62/63 is selling for 99% or just melt, the highest bid for cleaned and junky circulated gold is the refineries.

I am talking about Type 1 and Type 2's. If they are selling for melt off they go.

It depends, the ones you would want to own, not really. Common date cleaned and worn, yes. It also depends on the general demand, right now at these levels there's not alot of gold buyers to begin with,, but that can change quickly if we drop down to 4500.

This is the type of group dealers will offer wholesale, for instance they'll ask "99% of melt - good with spot over 5000" but lets say gold suddenly spikes up $150 in a day like its been doing recently, if he has a contract with a refiner and has enough for a shipment, it will make more sense financially to lock in an order at 99% with them because buying comes to a halt when gold does that. Demand returns once the price stabilizes, rinse repeat.

Since the market has been like this for such an extended period of time, theres no telling how many lots lie this were melted. They want to liquidate all at once though, theyre not looking to part them out or spend any time if theres thousands of dollars at risk if the price goes the other direction.

pcgscacgold · February 23, 2026 11:15AM

Always interesting seeing the difference between Saints and Liberty's @AUHawk

I have an $20 1896 64CAC with a CAC population of 25 and only two higher. A couple dealers would not even look at the coin to make an offer. Saints always rule the market regardless of how common they are.

lkenefic · February 23, 2026 11:28AM

When I bought the $20 Saint for my Gold Type Set, I opted for a common date (1924) in MS65. I made that purchase when gold was $2150/oz and I spent ~$2400. With gold now north of $5k... the premium for a 65 just doesn't seem to be there any more. Older plastic (OGH, Rattlers, etc.) seems to have more of a numismatic effect. 66s and 66+s seem to be doing marginally better...

AUHawk · February 23, 2026 11:36AM

@lkenefic said:
When I bought the $20 Saint for my Gold Type Set, I opted for a common date (1924) in MS65. I made that purchase when gold was $2150/oz and I spent ~$2400. With gold now north of $5k... the premium for a 65 just doesn't seem to be there any more. Older plastic (OGH, Rattlers, etc.) seems to have more of a numismatic effect. 66s and 66+s seem to be doing marginally better...

Doubled your money; nothing wrong with that!

AUHawk · February 23, 2026 11:40AM

@pcgscacgold said:
Always interesting seeing the difference between Saints and Liberty's @AUHawk

I have an $20 1896 64CAC with a CAC population of 25 and only two higher. A couple dealers would not even look at the coin to make an offer. Saints always rule the market regardless of how common they are.

That's really surprising. I don't follow the LIB market, but i did see a much stronger presence of CAC Libs at the show. Is part of the reason because of all the Fairmont coins impacting populations.

blitzdude · February 23, 2026 3:49PM

Been buying slabbed half, full and double eagles at melt the past few months. The premiums are long gone. I'm not and have never been a sticker collector. RGDS!

Double Eagle Auctions

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