Series: Patterns - PR
Judd 126a is a unique die trial of the obverse of a Liberty Head $20 gold piece. This was a revision of the head from the 1849 Gold Double Eagle, which had some technical difficulties that needed to be resolved before striking could begin. This variety has no date at all but has been atrributed to 1850; the date of manufacture is speculative and may have been 1849 or 1850, but it was certainly before full-scale production of the 1850 Double Eagles began.
The only example of Judd 126a know to exist today is held by the Harry W. Bass Foundation Core Collection. That coin was struck in copper, then gilt (probably at the Mint) to simulate an actual Double Eagle. The reverse of this piece is slightly different from that of Judd 126, which is a silver die trial, also undated. The differences are most noticeable in the rays of the sun above the eagle's head and in the shapes of the arrowheads and the leaves on the olive branch held in the eagle's talons.