1908-P No Motto Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle

Common date

Roosevelt had IN GOD WE TRUST left off the design, holding that putting the phrase on money that changed hands in ordinary commerce cheapened it. Congress disagreed and legislated the motto back partway through 1908, which is why the year exists in two forms. This is much the most common issue of the entire series.

Mintage

Business strikes: 4,271,551
Mint: Philadelphia (no mintmark)
Mintage rank: 50 of 52
Proofs struck: 101

Rank 1 is the lowest business-strike mintage in the series. Mintage and survival diverge more sharply in this series than anywhere else on the site. Double eagles were held as reserves rather than spent, so large numbers never entered circulation at all, and Executive Order 6102 recalled gold coin in 1933. The Treasury melting that followed destroyed most of what it held, and the issues of the late 1920s and early 1930s were hit hardest because they had barely left the vaults. The 1927-D is the extreme case: 180,000 struck, and a handful known today. Read the mintage here as what was made, never as what is available.

Reading the figure

Among the 24 Philadelphia issues in the series it is the 22nd smallest. Of the 5,463,059 struck across all mints in 1908, this issue accounts for 78%. That is more than a hundred times the San Francisco figure for the same year. The 1908 split ran Philadelphia 4,271,551, Denver 663,750, Denver 349,500, Philadelphia 156,258 and San Francisco 22,000. The series median is 567,500, so this issue is more than twice as numerous as a typical date. Series-wide output rose sharply that year: 5,463,059 against 374,034 in 1907.

Every sentence above is computed from the mintage table on this page, not asserted separately.

Scarcity tier

Common 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.

Mintage tells you very little in this series. Mintage and survival diverge more sharply in this series than anywhere else on the site. 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 1908-P No Mottocertification number up on the service’s own site. A photograph of a label proves nothing.

PCGS cert lookup NGC cert lookup ANACS cert lookup

Each service publishes its own guarantee with conditions and exclusions. Compare PCGS, NGC and ANACS.

Find a 1908-P No Motto for sale

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Common questions

How many 1908-P No Motto Saint-Gaudens double eagles were minted?

The Philadelphia Mint struck 4,271,551 1908-P No Motto Saint-Gaudens double eagles for circulation. That is the 50th lowest business-strike mintage of the 52 date and mintmark combinations in the series.

Is the 1908-P No Motto Saint-Gaudens double eagle a key date?

Coin Curator labels it a common 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. Roosevelt had IN GOD WE TRUST left off the design, holding that putting the phrase on money that changed hands in ordinary commerce cheapened it. Congress disagreed and legislated the motto back partway through 1908, which is why the year exists in two forms. This is much the most common issue of the entire series.

What should I check before buying a 1908-P No Motto Saint-Gaudens double 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.

Guides for this coin

All guides →

Vintage Guide

Saint-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 read Market Context

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 read Vintage Guide

The 1933 Double Eagle: A Provenance Lesson

The 1933 Double Eagle combines contested ownership, government litigation, exceptional provenance, and a documented 2021 auction record.

1 min read Buying Guide

MS-63 vs MS-65 vs MS-67: Which Grade to Actually Buy

Adjacent grades can carry very different market evidence. Learn how to compare surfaces, eye appeal, population data, and current records before choosing a grade.

1 min read

Mintage 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.

CoinMintages.com, Saint-Gaudens double eagle mintages — Reports the 1907 relief types and the 1908 motto types separately, with proofs listed apart from business strikes.
Wikipedia, "Saint-Gaudens double eagle" — Mintage table citing Yeoman and Bowers, and the source for the Ultra High Relief being an experimental piece rather than an issue.
NGC and dealer references, 1909 and 1910-S — Consulted to break the two disagreements between the tables above.

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