Transitional Gold Coins

United States gold coin production has produced several instances of two different designs being produced simultaneously, or within the same year. These are scaled transitional coins and they make for a very interesting collecting focus for the gold coin buyer.

The one dollar gold dollar denomination, the most obvious transitional issue occurred in 1854 when both the Type 1 and the Type 2 gold coin issues were produced. Both of these are relatively common although the Type 2 becomes scarce in the higher grades and rare in MS64 or better. In 1856 two designs were produced: the Type 2 and the Type 3. Since the Type 2 was only made in San Francisco during this year and there are no 1856-S Type 3 gold dollars this isn’t a transitional issue in the sense of the 1854.

There are many other transitional issues, such as the quarter eagle denomination. In 1796 2 coins were minted, one with No Stars and With Stars in the designs. Both of these are rare in all grades and because of price constraints they could be considered one more difficult coins to acquire in a transitional set. The next transitional issue occurred in 1834 when both the Capped Bust and the Classic Head quarter eagles were struck at the Philadelphia mint. The former is an extremely rare coin in all grades while the latter is common in grades up to and including MS63.

The largest group of transitional issues exist in the early half eagles. The reason for these transitional issues tends to be different than, for the 1854 Type 1 and Type 2 dollar when the design was changed to facilitate improved striking.

The twenty dollar U.S. gold coin contains more interesting transitional coins for the specialist. The first of these is the 1866-S No Motto and With Motto. The former is a very scarce coin in all grades and it remains unknown in Uncirculated. The latter is fairly common in circulated grades and scarce in Uncirculated with nearly all of the two to three dozen known in Uncirculated grading MS60 to MS61.

The termination of the Liberty Head design in 1907 meant that an interesting group of transitional coins from this year are available. The 1907 Liberty Head issues were produced at the Philadelphia, Denver and San Francisco mints and all three are common in grades up to MS63. The 1907-S is very rare.

Augustus St. Gaudens’ redesign of the double eagle was introduced in 1907. Most transitional collections would include a High Relief from this year as well as a 1907 No Motto. Both of these coins are readily available in Uncirculated grades and the No Motto is abundant even in MS65 to MS66.