1901-S $10 Liberty Head Eagle PCGS MS65 (CAC)

Here's a stunning piece destined to be included in your collection as a type coin. While a common issue, in the gem grade of MS65 it is among the finer available grades. PCGS has graded 1,301 as MS65, with 397 finer. In CAC there are 184 in MS65 with 56 finer.

Dealer Ron Gillio shares a story about this issue: "I encountered this date on my first trip to Europe to buy coins in 1970. I went to Zurich with fellow coin dealers Mark Teller and Larry Hanks. The first coins we were shown at the bullion department of Credit Suisse was two 500 coin bags of brilliant uncirculated 1901-S $10 Liberties. That's all they were in those days...bullion coins."

The Credit Suisse headquarters in Zurich in 1895. It was in the bullion department of this building that dealer Ron Gillio was offered two 500-coin bags of 1901-S $10 Liberty eagles in 1970.

This issue is believed to be the most common $10 Liberty eagle. Experts believe that up to 200,000 examples of the 1901-S survive today in the 21st century. The vast majority of them, about 90 percent, are uncirculated. Obviously these coins did not see much circulation and circumstantial evidence tells us they were employed for international banking and trade transactions.

Most of the survivors were in Swiss banks during the 1960s and 1970s, when such banks were the primary international bullion traders. At that time Liberty head eagles were considered to be a bullion coin, for there were no American Gold Eagles, Canadian Maple Leafs, Chinese Gold Pandas, or any other modern world bullion issues. Plus, before 1975, the only bullion coins legal for Americans to own were the Mexican 50 Pesos dated 1947 and earlier, as well as U.S. eagles and double eagles.