1920-S Indian Head Eagle
Key dateOne of the major rarities of the series. The mintage is modest to begin with, and the coins sat in Treasury holdings rather than circulating, so the 1933 melting took almost all of them.
Mintage
- Business strikes
- 126,500
- Mint
- San Francisco (S)
- Mintage rank
- 11 of 32
Rank 1 is the lowest business-strike mintage in the series. Mintage is a poor guide to availability in this series. Eagles were held as reserves rather than spent, Executive Order 6102 recalled gold coin in 1933, and the Treasury melted most of what it held. The 1920-S and the issues of the early 1930s were hit hardest because they had barely circulated. Read the mintage as what was made, never as what exists.
Reading the figure
Among the 11 San Francisco issues in the series it is the 6th smallest. It is the only issue of the series struck in 1920. 1920 was the 2nd smallest production year of the 15 in the series. In 1920 the coin was struck at San Francisco; Philadelphia struck none.
Every sentence above is computed from the mintage table on this page, not asserted separately.
About this figure
Survival is far below the mintage for this date. Gold coin was recalled in 1933 under Executive Order 6102 and the Treasury melted most of what it held, and eagles of this period had largely sat in vaults rather than circulating.
Scarcity tier
Key date
Assigned from reported mintage alone: under 750,000 is a key date, under 2,500,000 is a semi-key.
This is a reproducible label derived from the mintage column, not a market valuation and not a Coin Curator price opinion. The same thresholds apply to every series on this site. Several dates are far harder or far easier to obtain than their mintage implies; where that is true, it is stated above.
One widely printed figure in this series is not a mintage. Both published mintage tables consulted for this series print 50 for the 1907 Rolled Edge. Read the full note on the series page.
What to check before buying
Nothing about this date calls for a check beyond the ones that apply to any certified coin.
And for any certified coin
Verify the certification number on the grading service’s own lookup rather than from a photograph of the label, match the listing images to the certification record including grade and any variety attribution, look for cleaning, compare the mintmark against published photographs of the genuine issue, and read the return policy before buying. The grading guide covers each of these in full.
Coin Curator does not grade, authenticate, or appraise coins, and publishes no price or population data. These are verification steps, not a valuation.
Verify a certification number
Look a 1920-Scertification number up on the service’s own site. A photograph of a label proves nothing.
Each service publishes its own guarantee with conditions and exclusions. Compare PCGS, NGC and ANACS.
Find a 1920-S for sale
Opens an eBay search for this exact date and mint. Coin Curator does not list inventory, hold stock, or quote prices; verify each listing, seller, and return policy directly.
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Common questions
How many 1920-S Indian Head eagles were minted?
The San Francisco Mint struck 126,500 1920-S Indian Head eagles for circulation. That is the 11th lowest business-strike mintage of the 32 date and mintmark combinations in the series.
Is the 1920-S Indian Head eagle a key date?
Coin Curator labels it a key date, assigned from reported mintage alone: under 750,000 struck is a key date and under 2,500,000 is a semi-key. The same thresholds are used for every series on this site, so the tiers are comparable between them. That label describes production, not market value or how hard the coin is to find today. One of the major rarities of the series. The mintage is modest to begin with, and the coins sat in Treasury holdings rather than circulating, so the 1933 melting took almost all of them.
What should I check before buying a 1920-S Indian Head eagle?
Verify the certification number on the grading service's own lookup page, match the listing photographs to the certification record, check for cleaning, and compare the mintmark shape and position against published photographs of the genuine issue.
Why do sources give different mintage figures for the 1920-S?
Survival is far below the mintage for this date. Gold coin was recalled in 1933 under Executive Order 6102 and the Treasury melted most of what it held, and eagles of this period had largely sat in vaults rather than circulating.
Related dates
Guides for this coin
All guides →Pre-1933 Gold Coin Collecting and Market Context
Research Saint-Gaudens, Liberty Head, and Indian Head gold by exact type, date, grade, surfaces, current metal value, and coin-specific evidence.
1 min readVintage GuideSaint-Gaudens Double Eagle: A Collector’s Guide
The most beautiful US coin and one of the most collectible pre-1933 golds. The major types (Ultra High Relief, High Relief, No Motto, With Motto), the famous keys, and how to buy common dates well.
1 min readEducationWhat Makes a Coin a “Key Date”, and Why It Drives Value
Coins from the same series can differ sharply in availability and demand. Learn how date, mintmark, variety, grade, and surfaces shape key-date research.
1 min readBuying GuideApproachable Key-Date Coins to Research First
Seven dates that teach scarcity, identification, grade tradeoffs, and counterfeit-aware buying, without promising a fixed price or resale result.
1 min readMintage sources
Mintage figures are U.S. Mint production records, cross-checked against the published tables below on 2026-08-02. Where those tables disagree, the disagreement is disclosed on the affected page rather than resolved silently.
- Wikipedia, "Indian Head eagle" — Mintage table reporting business strikes separately from proofs. Used for the business-strike figures here. Its 1907 table omits the Wire Rim and prints a survival estimate for the Rolled Edge.
- USA Coin Book, Indian Head eagle — Independent table listing the 1907 varieties. Its Philadelphia figures add that year's proofs into the business-strike total.
- CoinWeek, 1907 Indian Head eagle No Motto With Periods — Consulted for the 1907 varieties, and the source establishing that the figures the tables print for them are survival counts rather than production records.
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