1910-D $10 Indian Head Eagle PCGS AU58

Here’s a great—and quite affordable—piece to add to your collection. The creative artistry of Augustus Saint-Gaudens is evident on this Indian Head Eagle, one of the true masterworks of numismatic design. PCGS has graded 1,542 as AU58 with 10,900 finer.

Supported by President Theodore Roosevelt's deeply personal foray in U.S. coinage, in 1905 Augustus Saint-Gaudens was given the creative challenge of developing three new circulating coins. Among them was the $10 Eagle coin. Roosevelt was smitten with the artistic elements of the coin of ancient Greece. After returning to his studio in Cornish, NH, Saint-Gaudens set to work preparing sketches of the design of the new Eagle coin. The artist focused on crafting the image of a standing eagle, one of which found its way onto the 1905 presidential inaugural medal. An adaptation of that design became the reverse device of the $10 Indian head Eagle.

Saint-Gaudens’ Standing Eagle, which is on Theodore Roosevelt’s Inaugural Medal (above, 1905), was adapted for the reverse of the $10 Indian Head Eagle. Photo: metmuseum.org.