Goldberg Coins and Collectibles

Sale 63

The Pre-Long Beach Auction of US, World Coins and Currency

$10 Gold

Lot	Photo	Description	Realized
Lot 1571		1795. 13 leaves below eagle. . BD-1, Rarity 3+. NGC graded AU Details, obverse planchet flaw. A rather pleasing looking coin with mint caused minor planchet flaws in the left obverse field and some scattered minor marks about the rims here and there. Plenty of detail and all, overlaid with natural rose color gold toning. Popular First Year of the type and actually, our nation's first gold coin. Only 5,583 eagles struck. Under the terms of the Coinage Act of 1792, the obverses of all the coins, copper, silver, and gold, had to depict Liberty, then as now an allegorical female figure. The reverses of the silver and gold coins had to depict an eagle. With those requirements in force, and a requirement that certain inscriptions appear on all the coins, mint engraver Robert Scot set to work in 1795 on the eagle designs. The gold eagle obverse depicts a bust of Liberty facing right and wearing a soft cap (not the pileus or Liberty cap found on the Liberty cap half cent and cent, among other U.S. coins). Liberty's hair flows freely, down over her truncated shoulders. LIBERTY occupies the under border above and to the right of the portrait, with stars arranged along the back of her head and from the Y in LIBERTY to the tip of the bust. The number of stars and their arrangement and exact positioning of LIBERTY vary from year to year. The first reverse, that of 1795-97, depicts the mandatory eagle, which some believe Scot copied from a sketch or engraving of a first century A.D. onyx cameo held in a museum in Vienna. The eagle holds a small wreath aloft in its beak and a palm branch in its talons. This is the most often seen variety having 13 leaves in the palm branch. The eagle's wings are outstretched. The inscription UNITED STATES OF AMERICA encircles the design (PCGS # 8551) . Estimated Value $27,000 - 30,000. View details and enlarged photos Check results on similar lots	Unsold
Lot 1572		1799. Small obverse stars. . BD-6, T-18, Breen-6838. PCGS graded AU-58. Well struck with lots of frosty mint luster still evident and all is overlaid with pleasing golden toning. 1799 T-18 is a very rare variety, with this example one of possibly 15 known. Harry Bass acquired two different examples during his numismatic pursuits. This example is among the finer survivor from this die marriage. The eagle coinage of 1799 includes ten die varieties from a combination of six obverse and six reverse dies. Rich deep yellow gold with some coppery highlights adhering to design elements. Superb eye appeal and preservation. Only the barest signs of wear on the highest design elements. Soft muted luster in most areas make this an attractive coin in all ways. Die Notes: Reverse shows bottommost star on left of beak touching ribbon but not beak. Bottom of first A in American touches two different feathers. Base of I of AMERICA touches leaf. Very small berries. Pop 19; 55 finer (PCGS # 98562) . Estimated Value $20,000 - 22,000. View details and enlarged photos Check results on similar lots	Realized $23,575
Lot 1573		1801. . BD-2, T-25, Breen-6843. PCGS graded AU-58+. Well struck, except for stars 1 thru 3, with wonderful lustrous surfaces which are slightly prooflike and all, delicately toned. Only 44,344 struck. Two 1801-dated varieties are known through combination of two obverse and two reverse dies. T-25 is the single most common early ten-dollar gold coin minted from 1795 to 1804, with literally dozens of high quality specimens known today, accounting for their popularity in United States Gold Type Sets and other numismatic situations where a single attractive specimen is all that a collector requires. And attractive this coin is, still lustrous and radiant with largely mellow to warm greenish golden highlights on both sides. All but fully struck, with just a insubstantial touch of weakness at the lowest feathers on the arrows that are being grasped by the eagle. Pop 1 (note the new plus grade) (PCGS # 8564) . Estimated Value $20,000 - 22,000. View details and enlarged photos Check results on similar lots	Realized $23,000
Lot 1574		1801. . BD-2, Breen-6843, Star near cap. NGC graded AU-55. Some marks and ticks about the rims and in the fields. Untoned with ample luster present around the stars and legends. There is also a great deal of original mint frostiness displayed within Liberty's hair and cap, and throughout the eagle. Surfaces somewhat rough, though all in all a respectable example of this early Capped Bust Eagle design. Mintage of this denomination was suspended after 1804 when orders fell to low levels. It seems that bullion depositors preferred the Half Eagle sized coin for their gold as it was close in size to similar circulating English, Spanish, and European denominations that competed (PCGS # 8564) . Estimated Value $14,000 - 15,000. View details and enlarged photos Check results on similar lots	Unsold
Lot 1575		1804 Crosslet 4. NGC graded MS-63. A far better than average strike with full hair detail. Untoned and shimmering with mint luster. Very rare date. The final year of the series, the 1804 capped bust eagles are rarer than the mintage of 3,757 might suggest: Breen estimates a survival rate of a "little over 1 percent." Just one variety is known for the "original" 1804 eagles. (A second "variety" of 1804 eagle was struck in 1834 for inclusion in sets of U.S. coins being used as diplomatic gifts by American officials.) The 1804, is, by a strange happenstance, not the final business strike issue in this series, as that honor goes to the very rare 1803 BD-6 die marriage. The Mint employed only a single die marriage to produce this issue, although the astute bidder will recognize that there is also a BD-2/Plain 4 variety reported for the 1804 in the 2006 book Early U.S. Gold Coin Varieties: A Study of Die States, 1795-1834 by John W. Dannreuther and Harry W. Bass, Jr. BD-2, however, is not part of the currency strike Capped Bust Right Eagle series but rather it is a Proof restrike from the 1830s that the Mint prepared for use in special Proof sets such as those presented to the King of Siam and the Sultan of Muscat. But to return to the coin in this lot. The 1804 BD-1/Crosslet 4 Eagle is a very scarce variety with an extant population of just 80-100 pieces in all grades. At the Choice Mint State 63 level, the coin that we are offering here is near the top of Condition Census for the variety. A mostly green-gold piece, both sides do brighten to more of a yellow-gold sheen when the surfaces dip into a light as the coin is gently tilted by the observer. Direct angles also call forth a vibrant, satiny texture that accents an overall sharp strike. There really are no areas of memorable lack of detail -- although a few are present, nonetheless -- and we are also unable to locate more than the expected number of abrasions for the assigned grade including a slight chatter run of four dots below the 9th star. A few shallow grazes over Liberty's portrait are noted for accuracy, but a faint adjustment marks over the reverse shield are as struck. Pop 5; 1 in 64. Estimated Value $130,000 - 140,000. View details and enlarged photos	Realized $103,500