United States 1795 10 dollars
This specimen was lot 1573 in Stephen Album sale 47 (Santa Rosa, CA, September 2023), where it sold for $36,000. The catalog description[1] noted, "UNITED STATES: AV 10 dollar, 1795, Draped Bust type, small eagle reverse, 13 leaves variety, cleaned, but a well struck lustrous example! PCGS graded AU details. The 1795 'eagle' was the first American ten dollar gold piece. There are two varieties, one with 13 leaves on the branch below the eagle and one with 9 leaves. Only 5,583 total coins were struck for both varieties. For the 13 leaves, probably 400 to 500 exist today in all grades." The first ten dollar gold pieces were struck in 1795; the reverse was modified in 1798 to use the heraldic eagle. Mintages were low, as the mint had little access to bullion, and the output was quickly bought up by speculators and exported, as the coin had more than ten dollars worth of gold. The type, struck until 1804, is rare and expensive today.
Recorded mintage: 5,583 all varieties.
Specification: 17.50 g, 0.916 fine gold, 33 mm diameter, this specimen 17.50 g.
Catalog reference: Fr-152, KM 21.
- Breen, Walter H., Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U. S. and Colonial Coins, New York: Doubleday, 1987.
- Michael, Thomas, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1701-1800, 7th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2016.
- Yeoman, R. S., and Kenneth Bressett (ed.), A Guide Book of United States Coins, 65th Ed., Atlanta, GA: Whitman Publishing, 2011.
- Friedberg, Arthur L. and Ira S. Friedberg, Gold Coins of the World, From Ancient Times to the Present, 9th ed., Clifton, NJ: Coin and Currency Institute, 2017.
- [1]Album, Stephen, Joseph Lang, Paul Montz, Michael Barry and Norman Douglas Nicol, Auction 47, Santa Rosa, CA: Stephen Album Rare Coins, Inc., 2023.
Link to: