1912 $10 Indian Head Eagle PCGS MS63

We at AUCM are delighted to offer to the collecting community an attractive specimen of a Great Gold Type Coins: a 1912 $10 Indian head gold piece, graded PCGS MS63. This piece would be an excellent addition to a collection of 20th century U.S. coins inspired by the collaboration between President Theodore Roosevelt and famed sculptor-medalist Augustus Saint-Gaudens that debuted from 1907 to 1921: the Lincoln cent, the Buffalo nickel, the Mercury dime, the Standing Liberty quarter, the Walking Liberty half dollar, the Peace silver dollar, the Bela Pratt designed $2.50 and $5 Indian gold pieces, and the Saint-Gaudens' $10 Indian and the $20 Saint.

President Theodore Roosevelt initiated the change in U.S. coinage in collaboration with sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens. It was his passion. For two and a half years, Roosevelt found the time, even in the midst of political and diplomatic struggles, to be deeply involved in numismatics. It was with a critical eye that the President followed every step in Saint-Gaudens’ work, making suggestions throughout the process. He didn’t care that Treasury Secretary Shaw thought he was “a cracked-brained lunatic on the subject.” The most obvious innovation from Roosevelt’s creative mind vis-à-vis the coins was in the case of the Liberty head on the $10 eagle. He requested that Saint-Gaudens replace the Phrygian cap in his original design with a traditional Indian feather headdress. The artist agreed wholeheartedly with the argument that “American Liberty should, if possible, have something distinctly American about her.”