1870-S $10 Liberty Head Eagle NGC VF30

This is a very rare issue. Out of its scant mintage of 8,000 pieces, there are perhaps 80-100 known to exist today. Between the two grading services (PCGS and NGC), there is only one in mint state (PCGS MS61). This is a relatively low price to pay for such a rarity. NGC has graded 9 in VF, with 46 finer.

Discussing the inspiration for the design found upon the Liberty Head eagle, 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 Jacques-Louis David's contemporary 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."

Pierre-Narcisse Guérin's Pythagoras or The Earth is Round.