1916-S $10 Indian Head Eagle PCGS MS64+ - Condition Rarity!

More common in lower mint state grades, in MS64+ this issue becomes a Condition Rarity. PCGS has graded only 5 in MS64+ with 24 finer. This is a beautiful work of numismatic art by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, one of our most accomplished artists and medalists.

Theodore Roosevelt, the numismatic president.

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.”