Sell double eagle and $20 gold coins in Los Angeles
A double eagle is almost certainly the most valuable coin in the box. Bring your $20 gold coin to our Lawndale counter, watch it identified by design, date and mint mark, and get paid that visit.
Where to sell double eagle gold coins in Los Angeles
Most people who sell a $20 gold coin are not collectors. They are settling an estate, clearing a safe deposit box, or unwrapping something that sat in a drawer for decades. South Bay Coin has bought double eagle gold coins across Los Angeles County from our Lawndale counter since 1980, and one coin from a family gets the same identification a dealer's inventory would.
That matters here, because a double eagle is common and valuable at once. Most survivors are ordinary dates, and an ordinary one is worth many times the twenty dollars stamped on it, because the coin carries close to a full ounce of gold before collectors enter the conversation. That is why these get undersold: common reads as unremarkable, and the owner takes the first number.
We are a licensed, bonded and insured California precious metals dealer with an in-house refinery, so we price the metal and the coin in one conversation instead of picking one. We identify the design, read the date and mint mark under magnification, and say what we are looking at before any number. If you also have gold jewelry to sell, gold and silver coins, or other gold to sell in Los Angeles, all of it is evaluated the same visit.
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What decides what a $20 gold coin is worth
Every double eagle holds .9675 of a troy ounce of gold in a 90 percent fine alloy, and that never changes from one coin to the next. The metal sets a floor identical across the series. Everything above it is decided by four things printed on the coin: design, date, mint mark, and the state of the surfaces.
The trap is the mintage figure. Guides publish how many of a date were struck, and owners read a big number as bad news. After 1933 the government recalled circulating gold and vault stock was melted by the ton, so what was struck and what still exists are different quantities. The 1927 San Francisco issue ran past three million pieces and fewer than three hundred are believed to survive. Mintage is not survival.
Surfaces are the other half. A common date with honest wear and original surfaces sits above its gold. The same date polished bright usually does not, because the thing a collector pays extra for has been removed. Bring a coin exactly as you found it.
The Saint-Gaudens double eagle, 1907 to 1933
If Liberty strides forward with a torch and the reverse shows an eagle in flight above the sun, you have a Saint-Gaudens. Theodore Roosevelt commissioned it from the sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and the modern Gold Eagle borrowed the design in 1986.
Four details place a Saint. Its edge is lettered rather than reeded, reading E PLURIBUS UNUM with stars between the words, so the rim is part of the design and filing there shows at once. The first year exists in a high relief version dated in Roman numerals, MCMVII. The motto IN GOD WE TRUST is absent from 1907 and part of 1908 and present afterward. The obverse star count rises from forty-six to forty-eight in 1912. Mint marks sit above the date: D for Denver, S for San Francisco, none for Philadelphia.
The Liberty Head double eagle, 1850 to 1907
The earlier design, also called Coronet, shows Liberty in profile facing left in a coronet marked LIBERTY, with a shielded eagle on the reverse. James B. Longacre engraved it and it ran more than half a century.
The reverse dates it without a reference book. From 1850 to 1866 there is no motto and the denomination reads TWENTY D. From 1866 to 1876 IN GOD WE TRUST appears above the eagle and it still reads TWENTY D. From 1877 onward TWENTY DOLLARS is spelled out. Collectors call those stages Type 1, Type 2 and Type 3, and the earlier ones are harder to find. The edge is reeded. This series was struck at Philadelphia, New Orleans, San Francisco, Carson City and Denver, which is why a CC always earns a careful look.
Double eagles that were worn as jewelry
A large share of the $20 gold coins that reach an estate arrive in a bezel, a pendant, a ring shank or a belt buckle. That was fashionable for decades, which is why we ask to see the mounting too. The trade has standing terms for what it leaves behind: mounted, mount removed, soldered, plugged.
None of that makes the coin worthless. The gold is untouched, so the floor holds. What changes is that the collector premium usually goes and the coin prices nearer its metal. Do not pry, file or polish anything first. If the setting is gold it carries value of its own and we weigh it separately.
Double eagles and pre-1933 US gold we buy
One coin or a full run, original or mounted. We buy the whole double eagle series and the smaller pre-1933 denominations.
Saint-Gaudens Double Eagles
All dates 1907 through 1932, all three mints, high relief and Roman numeral issues, with motto and without.
Liberty Head Double Eagles
Type 1, Type 2 and Type 3 Coronet coins from all five mints, Carson City included, circulated or better.
Mounted & Ex-Jewelry Gold
Double eagles set in bezels, pendants, rings and buckles, plus coins with solder traces or a removed mount.
Other Pre-1933 US Gold
Eagles, half eagles, quarter eagles, gold dollars and Indian Head issues.
Selling a double eagle in three steps
Bring It As Found
Walk into 16916 Hawthorne Blvd in Lawndale with no appointment, or text a photo of both sides. Leave mountings and holders alone.
Identified In Front Of You
We read the design, date, mint mark and edge under magnification, check the surfaces, and say what the coin is before any offer.
Take The Offer Or Take It Home
Every coin is quoted individually. Accept and get paid that visit, decline any piece, or walk out with all of it. Bring photo ID.
South Bay Coin vs other $20 gold coin buyers
A double eagle can go to three very different kinds of buyer, and each prices only part of the coin. Here is what changes with where you take it.
| South Bay Coin | Bullion Buyers | Jewelry & Scrap Buyers | Mail-In Buyers | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Identifies design, date and mint | Rarely | Sometimes | ||
| Prices above metal when the coin earns it | Metal only | Metal only | Sometimes | |
| Values a gold mounting separately | ||||
| Quotes each coin individually | Rarely | Rarely | ||
| Posts a fixed buy price before seeing the coin | Rarely | |||
| Licensed CA dealer since 1980 | Varies | Varies | Varies |
What our customers say
Common questions about selling double eagle gold coins
South Bay Coin buys double eagle gold coins at 16916 Hawthorne Blvd in Lawndale, minutes from Torrance and Redondo Beach. Walk in without an appointment, watch your coin identified by design, date and mint mark, and take payment the same visit.
It is the United States twenty dollar gold piece, struck for circulation from 1850 to 1933 and the largest regular gold denomination the country issued. Every $20 gold coin holds .9675 of a troy ounce of gold in a 90 percent alloy.
The obverse tells you instantly. A Saint-Gaudens shows Liberty striding forward with a torch and ran from 1907 to 1933. A Liberty Head, or Coronet, shows Liberty in profile wearing a coronet and ran from 1850 to 1907. The Saint has a lettered edge.
Not necessarily, and this is where owners undersell. The 1933 recall sent enormous quantities of gold coin to the melting pot, so mintage and survival are different figures. Some dates struck in the millions have only a few hundred survivors today.
It usually removes the collector premium while leaving the gold untouched, so a mounted $20 gold coin prices nearer its metal content. The trade records this as mounted, mount removed or soldered. If the mounting is gold, we weigh and pay for it separately.
No. Bring it mounted and let us look first. Prying, filing or heating a coin out of a setting adds fresh damage to the rim and fields, and solder that touched the gold never lifts cleanly. Removal cannot restore a premium already gone.
Yes. Honest circulation wear is normal on these coins and disqualifies nothing. We buy scratched, bent, cleaned, polished and ex-jewelry double eagles alongside original ones. Condition sets where a coin sits above its gold floor, never whether we make an offer.
These are among the most copied US coins, so verification belongs with a dealer rather than at home. On a Saint-Gaudens the lettered edge is a useful starting point, since many copies get the rim wrong. We authenticate free before quoting anything.
No appointment is needed. Our Lawndale showroom takes walk-ins Monday through Friday from 10 AM to 5 PM and Saturday from 10 AM to 3 PM. Bring valid photo identification, or text photographs of both sides of the coin beforehand.
No, and neither can anyone else. The 1933 issue was never officially released, so with one legalized exception these coins cannot lawfully be bought or sold here. Anything dated 1933 offered for sale is almost always a copy. Bring it in regardless.
Ready to sell your double eagle?
Walk into our Lawndale counter with no appointment, or text photos of both sides. Free identification, free evaluation, payment in one visit.
