1839 Liberty Head Eagle. Small Letters (a.k.a. Type of 1840). AU Details--Improperly Cleaned (NGC).

Plenty of sharp striking detail remains on both sides of this eagle, that also features glints of original mint luster under a light. Rather pleasingly patinated in light honey-orange, light to moderate hairlining explains the NGC qualifier. A more affordable, yet still appealing example of this often overlooked issue from the second year of the Liberty Head eagle series of 1838 to 1907. The longest-running ten-dollar gold eagle series produced in the United States Mint, the Liberty Head eagle was struck without interruption from 1838 through early 1907. It is the first eagle produced since 1804, President Thomas Jefferson having halted production of both this denomination and the silver dollar that year. By 1838, however, two laws had been passed that made it possible for the Mint to resume eagle coinage. The first was the Act of June 28, 1834, which reduced the weight of standard U.S. gold coins and, in so doing, placed the nation's monetary system on a gold standard. The second was the Act of January 18, 1837, a general overhaul of the nation's coinage laws that, among other things, standardized the fineness of gold and silver coins at 900 thousandths. When eagle production finally resumed in 1838, the Mint settled upon the Liberty Head design of Christian Gobrecht. The obverse would remain virtually unchanged through the 70-year lifespan of this series. The basic reverse design also remained unchanged from 1838 to 1907, although it was modified in 1866 with the addition of the motto IN GOD WE TRUST on a scroll above the eagle. The second type of Liberty Head eagle produced in 1839, the Small Letters (as offered here) is distinguished from its Large Letters counterpart not only by the aforementioned differences in the design of Liberty's portrait, but also in the size of the letters in the legend UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and the denomination TEN D. on the reverse. The 1839 Small Letters was produced to the extent of just 12,447 pieces, as opposed to the slightly more generous mintage of 25,801 coins for the 1839 Large Letters. PCGS CoinFacts provides an estimate of only 50 to 60 coins extant in all grades for the 1839 Small Letters. With market appearances few and far between, the significance of the present offering should be obvious.

PCGS# 8580. NGC ID: 262F.

From the Francesca Collection.