1862

The economic stresses and uncertainties of the Civil War resulted in widespread hoarding of all precious metal coinage and the government suspended specie payments in late 1861. These circumstances resulted a drastic reduction of coinage in 1862, and the Philadelphia Mint struck a modest business-strike mintage of only 92,133 double eagles that year. The coins were largely ignored by contemporary collectors and few were saved for numismatic purposes. Unlike some other dates of this period,…