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Lot 0489 1797 $10 Bust. Lg Eagle PCGS AU55

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / US Coins Start Price:12,500.00 USD Estimated At:25,000.00 - 35,000.00 USD
Lot 0489 1797 $10 Bust. Lg Eagle PCGS AU55
Very frosty and original appearing with only a few light contact marks in the field before Liberty. The rims are broad and choice without impairment. A beautiful, lustrous example of this transition year piece. When the quarter eagle went into production in 1796, it bore the same obverse as on the eagle and half eagle, but a new reverse, generally known as the heraldic eagle.

It bears a more full-bodied eagle than on the small eagle design. The eagles gazes to the left on the new design and holds in its beak a ribbon inscribed E PLURIBUS UNUM, a Latin phrase connoting One Among Many. A shield is mounted on the eagle's breast. The eagle holds a bundle of arrows in its right talons (the viewer's left) and an olive branch in its left talons, and is similar to that found on the Great Seal of the United States.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA encircles the design, as on the small eagle 1797. A semicircle of clouds stretches from wing to wing, with 13 stars positioned between the clouds and the eagle in arrangements that vary from die to die.

Mint engraver Robert Scot's new reverse was introduced on the eagle in mid-1797, so eagles of this year are found with both reverse design types. The estimated mintage of the 1797 capped bust, heraldic eagle $10 is 10,940.