1854-O Liberty Double Eagle: New Orleans' First $20
Coin Encyclopedia · 10 min read · Published November 7, 2026
In 1854, the New Orleans Mint struck its first double eagle. Only 3,250 were made. The coin was big — 34 millimetres across, more than an ounce of gold in the hand — and it was the largest coin New Orleans had ever struck. It was also the first $20 gold coin the South had ever seen from its own mint, struck from California gold that had travelled by sea to the Gulf. If you hold one today, you are holding the beginning of New Orleans double eagles, and the beginning is the rarest part of the story.
This page is about that first year. The 1854-O is a Type 1 Liberty double eagle, designed by James B. Longacre, struck before the motto IN GOD WE TRUST was added to the coinage, and struck in numbers so small that genuine examples are scarce in every grade. Our guide has not yet researched grade-by-grade figures for this date, so the table below is empty. The history is not.
New Orleans' first twenty
The double eagle was born in 1849, when the California gold rush flooded the Mint with gold and the nation needed a coin big enough to hold it. Philadelphia struck the first double eagles in 1849, and San Francisco followed in 1854, the year its mint opened. New Orleans joined them the same year, in 1854, striking its first $20 coins for a South that was growing fast and trading hard.
But New Orleans was never a big double-eagle mint. Philadelphia and San Francisco struck them by the hundreds of thousands; New Orleans struck them by the thousands, and sometimes by the hundreds. The 1854-O mintage of 3,250 is small even by New Orleans standards, and it reflects the mint's position: a branch mint serving a regional economy, striking the big coin only when the gold and the demand were there. Most of those 3,250 coins went into commerce in the South and wore down there, or were melted in later years. The survivors are few, and they are the coins this page is for.
The O mint mark sits on the reverse, below the eagle, between the tail feathers and the denomination. It is small, and on a worn coin it can be hard to see — which is exactly why you should look for it first. A double eagle dated 1854 without an O is a Philadelphia coin, struck in large numbers. A double eagle dated 1854 with an O is a New Orleans coin, struck in 3,250. The letter is the coin.
The grade table, still to be researched
The table below is our researched collector estimates from the live guide, reviewed November 5, 2026. Grades our guide has not researched yet are shown as “—”, not guessed. For this date, that is every grade. No grade-by-grade figures are catalogued yet, so the table below is a statement of what we do not yet know, not a set of numbers to lean on.
| Grade | Estimated value |
|---|---|
| Good (G-4) | — |
| Fine (F-12) | — |
| Extremely Fine (XF-40) | — |
| About Uncirculated (AU-50) | — |
| Mint State 60 (MS-60) | — |
| Mint State 65 (MS-65) | — |
An empty table on a coin like this can feel wrong. The 1854-O is a famous rarity, a first-year branch-mint double eagle, and a coin that any serious collector of New Orleans gold needs. But the table is not a measure of the coin's importance. It is a measure of our research, and the research has not reached this date yet. What the table does tell you is that no one should quote you a figure for an 1854-O from a guide alone. The figure comes from the coin in hand, graded by a professional, and from the live feed on this page when newly reported results land.
Type 1: the double eagle before the motto
The 1854-O is a Type 1 double eagle, and the type is easy to recognise once you know what to look for. The obverse shows Liberty wearing a coronet, with thirteen stars around the rim and the date 1854 below. The reverse shows a heraldic eagle with a shield, an olive branch and arrows, and the words UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and TWENTY D. around it. There is no motto anywhere on the coin. IN GOD WE TRUST did not appear on the double eagle until 1866, twelve years after this coin was struck, when the motto was added to the reverse above the eagle.
That absence is the quickest way to confirm the type. If your 1854 double eagle carries a motto, it is not genuine — or it is not an 1854. The motto, the denomination as TWENTY D. rather than TWENTY DOLLARS, and the Longacre portrait together place the coin in the first type, struck from 1849 to 1866. The type changed twice more before the series ended: Type 2 added the motto in 1866, and Type 3 spelled out TWENTY DOLLARS in 1877. The 1854-O predates both changes, which is part of what makes it a first-year coin in the fullest sense.
Longacre's design is often called the Coronet double eagle, after Liberty's coronet, and it is the longest-running $20 design in American history — struck from 1849 to 1907, through the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the Gilded Age. The 1854-O is one of its earliest branch-mint expressions, struck when the design was five years old and the nation was still learning what a twenty-dollar gold coin was for.
California gold, by sea to New Orleans
The gold in the 1854-O came from California. The gold rush had filled San Francisco with gold dust and nuggets, and the Mint needed to turn that gold into coin wherever it could. Some of it went to Philadelphia. Some of it stayed in San Francisco. And some of it travelled by sea, around the tip of South America or across Panama, to New Orleans, where the mint turned it into double eagles for the South.
That journey is part of the coin's story. A double eagle struck at New Orleans in 1854 is California gold, coined in Louisiana, spent in the South — a coin that crossed a continent before it was even struck, and then crossed the South in commerce. It is a reminder that the branch mints were not separate worlds. They were one system, moving gold to where the coinage was needed, and the 1854-O is the evidence in your hand.
Specs and the metal floor
The 1854-O double eagle weighs 33.436 grams and measures 34 millimetres across, struck in 90% gold and 10% copper. It holds 0.9675 troy ounces of pure gold — nearly a full ounce, the largest gold content of any regular United States coin. The specification is the same for every Liberty double eagle from 1849 to 1907, and the same for the Saint-Gaudens double eagles that followed. If you have handled any $20 gold coin, the 1854-O feels identical in the hand: heavy, broad, and unmistakably gold.
Metal floor: — The live melt figure on this site is calculated only for the $1 gold dollar, whose specification the Worker carries. Larger gold — $2.50, $5, $10 and $20 — has no live melt specification yet, so this page shows “—” for the metal floor rather than a computed figure. The weight above is the honest check: a genuine coin matches it, and a light coin is not genuine.
Weigh it first. A genuine double eagle is 33.436 grams, and a counterfeit in base metal will be far too light. Then measure it: 34 millimetres, with a reeded edge that is sharp and even all the way round. Then look at the design under a loupe — Longacre's Liberty has crisp hair and a clean coronet, the eagle's feathers are sharp, and the lettering is even. A cast copy looks soft, with mushy details and tiny bubbles in the fields. On a first-year branch-mint coin, those three checks are the beginning, not the end: certification is where the figure is settled.
Latest reported results for this coin
Checking for newly reported results…
Your 1854-O double eagle questions, answered
What is an 1854-O Liberty double eagle worth?
Our guide has not yet researched grade-by-grade figures for this date, so the grade table below shows — for every grade. As a first-year New Orleans double eagle with only 3,250 struck, it is a scarce coin in any grade, and a professional grade is the only reliable way to value one.
Why was the mintage only 3,250?
1854 was the first year New Orleans struck double eagles, and the mint was still building its capacity for the big $20 coin. Most of the nation's double eagles were struck at Philadelphia and San Francisco, where the California gold was landing.
What is a Type 1 double eagle?
Type 1 is the original Liberty double eagle, struck from 1849 to 1866. It carries no motto — IN GOD WE TRUST was not added until 1866 — and the reverse reads TWENTY D. The 1854-O is a Type 1, struck twelve years before the motto appeared.
Who designed the Liberty double eagle?
James B. Longacre, the Mint's chief engraver, designed both sides: Liberty in a coronet on the obverse and a heraldic eagle on the reverse. It is the same hand behind the Indian cent and the three-cent piece.
How do I check an 1854-O double eagle?
Weigh it at 33.436 grams and measure 34 millimetres, then examine the O mint mark below the eagle on the reverse and the design under a loupe. On a first-year branch-mint coin, certification from PCGS or NGC is strongly advised.
Check your 1854-O
An 1854-O is New Orleans' first $20, struck from California gold in a mintage of 3,250. Weigh it, find the O, and let a grader settle the rest. Run the date and mint mark through the free Coin Value Checker for an instant estimate, or get a Grade-or-Not verdict on whether your coin is worth certifying. The full gold guide is here: Gold Dollar Coin Values by Type and Date.
For learning only: this guide is educational, and the figures here are researched estimates, not a promise of what any single coin will bring. An 1854-O should be authenticated and graded by professionals before any decision is made.
This guide is for education — learn the coin first, and get a professional opinion before buying or selling.