1929 Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle
Circulation strike struck at the Philadelphia Mint · 1,779,750 made
- Mintage
- 1,779,750
- Metal
- 90% gold, 10% copper
- Weight
- 33.436 g
- Diameter
- 34 mm
Original illustration. Tap to flip. Not a photograph of the actual coin.
Face value · Metal value · Small premium · Collector premium · Significant rarity. We use bands because prices change daily.
What is a 1929 Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle worth?
Collectors pay a real premium for this date, worn or not, because far fewer were made than usual. Uncirculated pieces go much higher.
What would make yours worth more:
- Uncirculated condition with full original luster
- A die variety or minting error
- Certification by PCGS or NGC, which buyers expect for scarce dates
For market prices, check recent sold results for certified coins in the same grade.
Quick answers
- Is the 1929 Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle rare?
- Somewhat. 1,779,750 were made, fewer than most dates, so collectors treat it as a semi-key.
- Is the 1929 Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle real gold?
- No, it's gold: 0.9675 troy ounces of pure gold.
- Where is the mint mark on a 1929 Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle?
- On the obverse, above the date. Philadelphia coins have no mint mark.
- Which Philadelphia dates near 1929 are scarcer?
- The 1933 at 445,500, the 1926 at 816,750, the 1932 at 1,101,750. So the 1929 is on the scarcer side for those years.
- How many 1929 Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle coins were made?
- 1,779,750.
What to check on your 1929
- There's no mint mark on this one, so the date and condition are what matter.
- Judge the grade under good light. Look at Liberty's breast and knee and at the eagle's wing feathers. Contact marks in the open fields are common on these heavy coins.
Gold coins are counterfeited more than any other US coins. A genuine 1929 weighs 33.436 g and measures 34 mm. Buy certified examples from a reputable dealer.
The story of the 1929
Production at Philadelphia fell off a cliff in 1929. Only 1,779,750 were made, against 8.8 million the year before. That drop is why the 1929 is the one people look for. After that, Philadelphia didn't make another until 1931.
No other mint struck it for circulation that year, so every 1929 you find is from Philadelphia. In the whole series, its mintage sits closest to the 1923-D (1,702,250) and the 1926-S (2,041,500).
Philadelphia struck the Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle in 24 issues between 1907 and 1933. By mintage this one lands in the more common half, while the key for that mint is the 1907 (High Relief) (12,367). Within the 1920s it's 10th smallest of 21, between the 1923-D (1.7 million) and the 1926-S (2 million).
Late dates and the 1933 double eagle (1929 to 1933)
Double eagles from 1929 to 1932 were struck in good numbers but few were ever released. The 1929, 1930-S, 1931, 1931-D and 1932 are all rare because nearly every coin was melted after the gold recall. Survivors are mostly uncirculated and well struck, since they never saw use in commerce. The 1931-D had a mintage of just 106,500. Counterfeits of these late dates exist, so buy them only certified.
The 1933, with 445,500 struck, was never issued. A few left the Mint unofficially and the government pursued them for decades. Only one example, once owned by King Farouk of Egypt, has been legally cleared for private ownership. The rest of the mintage was melted. The series ended with these coins because gold coinage for circulation stopped in 1933.
Elsewhere in US coinage in 1929
The stock market crashed in October 1929, beginning the Great Depression that cut coin demand for years.
How to recognize it
Liberty strides forward holding a torch and an olive branch, with the Capitol building at her feet and rays of the sun behind her. The reverse shows an eagle in flight above a rising sun. The edge is lettered E PLURIBUS UNUM between stars. The 1907 high relief coins show the date in Roman numerals; later coins use Arabic numerals and lower relief.
Mintage chart
Specifications
| Series | Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle (1907–1933) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1929 |
| Mint | Philadelphia Mint |
| Mint mark | None |
| Strike type | Circulation strike |
| Mintage | 1,779,750 |
| Face value | $20 |
| Composition | 90% gold, 10% copper |
| Weight | 33.436 grams |
| Diameter | 34 mm |
| Edge | Lettered E PLURIBUS UNUM |
| Designer | Augustus Saint-Gaudens |
Mintage: Saint-Gaudens double eagle (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0), compiled from US Mint records and the Guide Book of United States Coins. How we build these pages.