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*HIGHLIGHT OF THE MONTH* 1838 Gold Liberty Eagle $10 Graded ms63 details By SEGS (fc)

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money Start Price:25.00 USD Estimated At:5,000.00 - 10,000.00 USD
*HIGHLIGHT OF THE MONTH* 1838 Gold Liberty Eagle $10 Graded ms63 details By SEGS (fc)
***Auction Highlight*** 1838 Gold Liberty Eagle $10 Graded ms63 details By SEGS. HIGHLIGHT OF THE MONTH – Up for Auction is an Historic First Year 1838 Liberty Head Eagle in Uncirculated Condition. Only 5 known Uncirculated Examples of this coin exist, and based on public auction records of the last quarter Century, only 3 examples have ever surfaced, today a fourth. Before this coin's production, the eagle denomination had not been coined for circulation since the administration of Thomas Jefferson in 1804. A tiny number, probably four or five, were coined in 1834 from newly made 1804-dated dies of the previous design, a Proof-only production that was struck for placement in diplomatic presentation sets like those prepared for the King of Siam and the Sultan of Muscat. On July 27, 1838, Secretary of the Treasury Levi Woodbury informed Mint Director Robert M. Patterson that coinage of eagles was to resume as soon as practicable. "We shall spare no pains to make our chief coin worthy of the Mint," Patterson replied, and Christian Gobrecht's was given the task of designing and engraving the new issue of the largest denomination authorized by the Mint Act of 1792.Another Mint Director, James Ross Snowden, was the first to write about the 1838 eagle from the perspective of a numismatist. "This pattern made its first appearance on the twenty-sixth of December, and consisted of 6,700 eagles (this was the first coinage of this denomination since 1804)," Snowden wrote in 1861. "On the thirty-first of December the Chief Coiner returned to the Treasurer 500 eagles, making 7,200 eagles of the new type issued in this year. This pattern was adopted on the half eagle of 1839, and on the quarter eagle of 1840." The design, what Snowden called a "pattern," was actually heavily modified in 1840, leaving the 1838 eagle as the premier issue of a type that lasted only two years.The United States Mint would not strike a coin of greater value than the eagle until after the discovery of gold at California's Sutter's Mill. The $20 gold piece or double eagle was the first new denomination authorized since 1792; a gold version of the one dollar coin would be created by the same legislation. In time, more denominations would be created, including two cents, three cents, twenty cents, and $3 gold pieces. Until gold coinage was proscribed by Executive Order in 1933, eagles continued to be a steadily produced and important denomination. Mintages ebbed and flowed, reaching a high of nearly five million total coins from four different mints in 1881. Eagles were never struck at the two Southern coining facilities that struck exclusively gold coins, Dahlonega and Charlotte, but every other Federal mint produced the denomination.Though Gobrecht's design was struck with a modified portrait beginning in 1839, and the motto In God We Trust was added to the field above the eagle's head starting with the 1866 issue, the design created for the eagle in the summer and fall of 1838 endured until the 20th century. It spanned from an era when steam power was new to the Mint until the age of automobiles. Eagles struck to the post-1834 New Tenor standard were coined with only two basic designs: Gobrecht's Liberty Head and the Indian Head motif of Augustus Saint-Gaudens. The watershed nature of the 1838 $10 issue inspires many collectors to seek an example for their cabinet, but nearly all settle for a circulated specimen. They all settle for a circulated example as that is all that is generally available. Since 1995, only 4 public auction events of uncirculated examples have occurred. One in 1996, one in 2002, one in 2007 and most recently, the Pogue example which sold in 2016 for $105,750. Between PCGS, SEGS & NGC only 6 grading events are listed in the population reports, and we are aware that at least 1 is the same coin. I have included a picture of the au58 example that sold I 2016 for $64,625. Please note the extensive hairlines on the coin, as well please note the difference between that example and ours as far as wear at the high points. Ours is a TRUE Unc, No Wear. I will further note that the au58 had significant hairlines, and ours, although it has a details designation, only a slight lack of appropriate luster for the grade is the cause of the details designation, whereas the au58 has very apparent hairlines. I wish you luck in becoming one of the few owners of an Uncirculated 1838 $10 Eagle. A Corey's Pick, Bid to Win, Don't let it get Away, you might not find its equal Coin. I give this coin my highest recommendation