1857 $10 Liberty Head Eagle PCGS MS60

CU priced at $25,000. CDN-valued at $26,000. PCGS Population of 4 in this grade, 4 finer!

This is an exceedingly rare coin. This issue—with its small mintage of 16,606 examples—is one of the ‘sleepers’ in the No Motto Liberty Eagle series. Contemporary collectors saw this issue as merely bullion, for the entire mintage went into circulation until the onset of the Civil War, which led to hoarding of all gold coins.  

Gold specialist David Akers writes, “The 1857 is a very rare and underrated date. It is not often available in any condition and when offered for sale, VF or EF is the grade. A small number of AU examples are known …. In terms of overall rarity, the 1857 is similar to the 1851 and 1854, but it is even more difficult to obtain in high grade.”

Painting by Pierre-Narcisse Guérin, Pythagoras or The Earth is Round (c. 1800).

Commenting upon the inspiration for Gobrecht's Liberty, numismatic scholar and art critic Cornelius Vermeule writes, "The motivation for this Roman head of Liberty stems from vast, varied neoclassicism of the Napoleonic era. Typical of the source is a small painting ... by … Pierre-Narcisse Guérin, Pythagoras or The Earth is Round, painted about 1800 .... [On the painting it] is the diademed or coroneted, white-robed, seated female that should attract our attention, for she is related to the heads of Liberty on our 19th century gold ... coinage."