1839 Liberty Head Eagle. Small Letters (a.k.a. Type of 1840). EF-40 (NGC).
Richly toned in deep honey-orange and more vivid reddish-gold, both sides also offer bold detail to the major design elements. The second type of Liberty Head eagle produced in 1839, the Small Letters is distinguished from its Large Letters counterpart not only by 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, with 25,801 coins for the 1839 Large Letters. The former is the rarer of the two issues, although it is often overlooked by collectors focused on the brevity of the Large Letters design type of 1838 and early 1839. 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 to the astute gold enthusiast.
PCGS# 8580. NGC ID: 262F.

Estimate: $7000