1799 $10 Draped Bust Eagle, Heraldic Eagle NGC MS63

An example of classic numismatic art from the American Federal Period. Stunning in its MS63 grade, this piece would be the perfect addition to the collection of a sophisticated numismatist. Mintage of 37,449. NGC has graded 61 in MS63 with 36 finer.

The first U.S. Mint in Philadelphia, where this piece was struck in 1799.

Numismatic art critic Cornelius Vermeule writes of this obverse design:

The industrious Robert Scot ... created the bust of Liberty that dominated the gold coinage .... His source could well have been an idealized, somewhat backward portrait of Martha Washington arrayed for an evening reception .... The Liberty cap is a great tumultuous affair of soft felt that somehow manages to tower amid a large, curled forelock and long, wavy tresses .... The face is flat, blunt, and thoroughly bourgeois. The draped bust is a truncated curiosity. Greco-Roman classicism has been misunderstood here .... The entire presentation makes little sense as an immediate visual experience. Scot surely did not originate this form of classicism in the federalist period; no doubt he adapted the design from some cast after the antique or some contemporary marble by a sculptor of modest talents.