Today, the U.S. Mint launches a new coin for collectors: called the “Ultra High Relief Double Eagle“, this coin is one ounce of .999 pure 24-karat gold, and at 27mm diameter is about the size of the Sacajawea dollar. The design is very similar to the classic “double eagle” $20 coin, designed by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and first released in 1907. While the design is largely identical to Saint-Gaudens’ design, a few minor details, such as borders, the number of state stars, and the location of text, have been altered, but the coin represents the finest of coin design seen in U.S. currency.
Augustus Saint-Gaudens was the son of immigrants, who arrived in this country when Saint-Gaudens was quite young. A budding sculpter in his youth, Saint-Gaudens studied art in the states through much of the mid-19th century, moving to Paris to study at the prestigious Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, before returning to the United States as a master sculptor. Saint-Gaudens’ statues can be seen in prominent locations across the U.S., from the Admiral Farragut statue in New York’s Madison Square Park, to the “Standing Lincoln” statue in Chicago’s Lincoln Park. Vice President Teddy Roosevelt met Saint-Gaudens at the Pan American Expo in 1901 — a meeting that would prove valuable to Saint-Gaudens in the future. Shorty after their meeting, President McKinley was assassinated, pushing Roosevelt to the seat of the Presidency. When the time came for revising the U.S. coinage, Roosevelt knew of one master sculptor who could make our money shine as a piece of art above and beyond the precious metals they were minted from.
The Double-Eagle is seen as Saint-Gaudens’ masterpiece: the small coin, slightly larger than a quarter, depicts a standing liberty on the front, and an eagle in flight in the back. The sun’s rays radiate from the horizon in the background, extended to the borderless edges. Stars on the obverse represent each state of 
the Union, and the reverse describes the coin’s value. In a departure from usual coin conventions and echoing a classical style, the font used is distinctively Roman, and the year is indicated in roman numerals. To keep the front of the coins as clean as possible, Saint-Gaudens elected to use edge-lettering, a feature not seen again until the 21st century on the presidential dollars.
When the $20 double eagle first went to be minted in 1907, the chief engraver of the mint, Charles Barber, found the high relief of the coin to be troublesome, but Roosevelt and Saint-Gaudens’ assistant Henry Hering insisted that the high relief be retained. A small number of ultra-high-relief versions of the coin were minted, but nearly 12,000 of a slightly lower-relief coin were minted. New dies were made with an even lower relief after those first 12,000, requiring fewer strikes to achieve the design. Those 12,000 original high-relief double-eagle gold $20 coins are some of the most valuable and rare of coins on the market, and the early proofs are considered the most valuable coins of that period to have ever been minted for circulation. Even the diameter of the coin was inconsistent: early proofs were 27mm, the size of the current coin, but because the law did not allow for the size of coins to be changed with the designs, the 27mm version were mostly destroyed, and the rest of the coins were minted slightly larger at 34mm, also giving them a slight edge. The new coin intends to commemorate those rare early ultra-high relief coins with a modern collectible update — at a premium price, of course. Just based on the price of the gold inside, the coin will cost at least $900 – $1000; the Mint, as far as I could find, has not listed the new double-eagle for sale on their website yet nor in pre-release documents, but speculation is that the coin will cost approximately $1,200.
Late Update: This afternoon the Mint added the ultra-high-relief double-eagle to their online store, with a price of $1,189, but, as with all U.S. coins made from highly-precious metals, the price may fluctuate depending on the gold market.
