After considerable infighting at the Philadelphia Mint, Chief Engraver James B. Longacre designed the double eagle, and it began to be issued for commerce in 1850.

It was struck until replaced by the Saint-Gaudens double eagle in 1907, and many were melted when President Franklin D. Roosevelt recalled gold coins from the public in 1933.

The eagle's size made it convenient for use in international transactions,[4] and, faced with the likelihood that most being struck were exported, the Director of the Mint Elias Boudinot ended its production in 1804.

[9] In January 1849, North Carolina Congressman James Iver McKay amended his previously introduced legislation for a gold dollar to provide for a double eagle as well.

[11] Nevertheless, the bill providing for the issuance of the gold dollar and double eagle passed both houses by large margins, and was signed into law by President James K. Polk on March 3, 1849.

[11] According to numismatist David Lange, "the double eagle was a banker's coin intended to simplify transfers of large sums between financial institutions and between nations".

[15] Peale spent the resulting free time running a private medal business taking commissions from the public and using the government's facilities,[14] including its Contamin portrait lathe.

[18] As Longacre worked on the double eagle design, according to numismatist Walter Breen, "Peale, with Patterson's tacit approval, began harassment.

A friend, New York engraver Charles Cushing Wright, arranged for Peter F. Cross to assist Longacre with making hubs and dies.

Peale did not test them for two weeks; when he did, he rejected them, stating that Liberty's head opposed the eagle on the reverse, making it difficult for the full design to be brought forth.

[25] The obverse depicts a head of Liberty in the Greco-Roman style,[26] facing left, with her hair pulled back—according to numismatists Jeff Garrett and Ron Guth, "attractively"—in a bun.

[19] The design is a variant on the Great Seal of the United States; the eagle protects a shield, which represents the nation,[28] and holds an olive branch and arrows.

[31] Art historian Cornelius Vermeule disliked the double eagle and other Longacre coins showing Liberty, calling them routine.

[20] The Journal of Commerce, a New York periodical, suggested that the piece be replaced with one showing George Washington on one side and on the other "a handsome eagle standing out as if it were not ashamed of itself".

[40] The branch mints at Charlotte and Dahlonega, which also closed with the Civil War, had limited coinage facilities, and struck no denomination higher than a half eagle.

[43] Thousands of almost-pristine 1857 double eagles struck at San Francisco (1857-S) went down with the Central America when it sank off the East Coast of the United States that September, as did some 435 people, including Captain William Herndon.

[44] The Brother Jonathan, a luxurious paddle steamer en route from San Francisco north to Portland, sank in July 1865; few survived the wreck.

Only a handful of the Philadelphia specimens were not melted, but by the time word reached San Francisco to stop production, the western mint had issued 20,000 pieces.

[48] In February 2013, an 1866-S double eagle with no motto was discovered in the Saddle Ridge Hoard in the Gold Country on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada in California.

[49] Only a very small number of proof coins in the Liberty Head double eagle series were struck for sale to the public, beginning in 1858, at Philadelphia; Breen noted, "few collectors could afford them even then".

[19] With the nation in the midst of an internal war, in November 1861, Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase received a proposal that American coinage bear an expression of faith in God.

[51] Longacre made the required addition to the double eagle by slightly enlarging the circle of stars on the reverse, and placing the motto within it.

[53] In 1870,[54] the Carson City Mint opened in Nevada at the urging of silver mining interests, so that ore could be refined and converted to coin locally.

[57] Carson City double eagles circulated for the most part only locally, since they were only struck in response to the deposit of gold bullion and the request of the depositor that it be coined into twenty-dollar pieces.

[59] In November 1872, Chief Engraver William Barber, Longacre's successor, submitted a set of logotypes to show how the following year's date would appear on the coinage.

[72] Chief Engraver Barber repeatedly objected to the design Saint-Gaudens finally submitted, which shows Liberty striding across a rocky outcrop, on the grounds that its relief was too high.

[76] Although many of the double eagles exported in bulk in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were melted—records show that most sent to the United Kingdom were recoined into sovereigns—millions remained in banks.

[80] Type I double eagles have been recovered from shipwrecks, bringing many high-grade early specimens onto the market, with the romance of "treasure coins" increasing the public demand.

Even proof coins—with mintages in the dozens or low hundreds—sold on the secondary market at a slight increase from face value, and probably many were spent in hard times.

[82] As it became clear in the 1940s that the withdrawal of gold coins in 1933 had left several late-date Saint-Gaudens double eagles unexpectedly rare, collector interest grew in the denomination.