1795 Eagle - 1795 $10, 13 Leaves, PCGS AU50. BD-1, R3+. Here is a breathtaking, heart stopping example of our first official United States gold coin. The 1795 Eagle has been called the flagship of the early Mint. The coin is composed of light yellow gold surrounded by darker gold at the rims. The well-centered devices are bright with remaining original mint luster. The colors and luster confirm the coins originality. The surfaces are clean for the grade with no notable abrasion marks or other distractions that require individual description. There are a few file lines in the center of the obverse, known as adjustment marks. These are fairly common on older US gold coins and do not affect the grade. The strike is far above average with full details showing on most of Libertys hair. About half of the eagles breast feathers show. The dentils on both sides are full and strong.

The coin is identified as the BD-1 variety. The top of the 1 in the date is very close to the curl, and the tip of the 5 overlaps the drapery. Star 11 is very close to the Y in LIBERTY, and two lumps are at the top left of the Y. The stars to the right are all very close to each other. On the reverse, a leaf virtually touches the U in UNITED. At first glance it actually appears to touch it.  

Chief Engraver, Robert Scot designed the eagle. The obverse shows a profile of Liberty facing right. His source may have been an idealized portrait of Martha Washington dressed for an evening reception. Below the truncation is the date, which is off center to the left. Between the date and the word LIBERTY on the left side of the coin are 10 stars. Another 5 stars follow LIBERTY down to the bust. Liberty wears a large, soft cap. Her hair flows down and also shows on her forehead. The design was probably taken from a Roman engraving of a Greek goddess. Libertys cap was certainly not a Phrygian or liberty cap. The liberty cap, emblematic of freedom, was worn by freed slaves and freed gladiators in Roman times. It was a close fitting cap used to cover a shorn head, which was one of the ways slaves were identified. Because of the way Libertys hair strands wrap around it, the oversized cap has been called a turban, and the design has been called the Turban Head because of it. The reverse shows a scrawny eagle perched on a palm branch. This eagle, which looks like no real bird, has been compared to a chicken at best. Its head is turned to the right, and it holds a small wreath in its mouth. The wings, which are stretched out, interrupt the legend UNITED STATES OF AMERICA at the periphery.

Cornelius Vermeule in his Numismatic Art in America described Libertys cap as, a great tumultuous affair of soft felt that somehow manages to tower amid a large, curled forelock and long, wavy tresses. It is hard to say what is cap and what is hair entwined about it. He also comments on the eagle of the reverse. with wings half spread is even more difficult to describe in ornithological terms however, and it must not be overlooked that Robert Scots first gold coinage has a positive character of its own, a healthy individuality and almost rustic charm.

Thomas Jefferson chose Scot to be the first Chief Engraver of the United States Mint on November 23, 1793. Scot was born in 1744 in Edinburgh, Scotland or England. (Documentary evidence is lacking as to where he was born.)  He was trained as a watchmaker in England and learned engraving afterwards. He moved to the United States in 1777, where he worked as an engraver of plates, bills of exchange, and office scales. During the Revolution, he was an engraver of paper money. In 1780 he was made the State Engraver of Virginia. He moved to Philadelphia the next year. He was appointed Chief Engraver of the United States Mint on November 23, 1793 by David Rittenhouse, Mint Director. His salary in 1795 was $1,200 per year. The Mint Director received only $800 dollars per year more. Scots ability to make dies was limited, and he was advanced in years with failing eyesight. His work was somewhat less than that done in Europe at the time, and Scot was criticized for its poor quality. He was responsible for designs of most of Americas first coins. These include the Flowing Hair and the Draped Bust motifs used on early silver coins and the Capped Bust gold coins. Scot also designed the 1794-1797 half-cent, the 1800-1808 draped bust half-cent, and the Thomas Jefferson Indian Peace Medal. He died on November 1, 1823 and was succeeded by William Kneass as Chief Engraver.

The early Mint in Philadelphia had many challenges. Each of the specialists, the designers, engravers, and press operators were men who had previously worked in other fields. Coin manufacturing was a new trade for them. Production was sporadic. For the new Mint to coin each of the mandated denominations, it took four years. This delay was partly because of inexperience and governmental obstacles. Bonds that were unrealistically high were impediments to engravers working with precious metals. Congress was not united on the need for a government mint since private and foreign coinage seemed to work. Because of the non-existent or low production numbers in the early years of the Mint, foreign copper, silver and gold circulated along with American made coins for many years until they were later demonetized.

Record keeping in the Mints early years was fairly inaccurate. At the end of the eighteenth century Philadelphia had recovered from the British occupation and Revolutionary War. It was the second largest city in the English-speaking world, but it could do nothing to protect its citizens from the mosquito-borne epidemic of yellow fever. Its wealthy citizens went to the countryside to escape, and the poor grimly waited their fate. Of course these annual epidemics caused havoc with all manufacturing that required continuity, such as a coinage sequence. In addition to yellow fever, chaos at the Mint was also caused by chronic bullion shortages, coin dies that would wear out and had to be re-engraved because they were not taken out of production until they failed completely, and a Chief Engraver, Robert Scot, who was in his seventies and had failing eyesight.  

In its population report, PCGS lists the die varieties of the 1795 eagle. The BD-1, Small Eagle has only 1 listing, an AU55 specimen, which leads one to the conclusion that the current piece is the second finest known at PCGS. NGC does not list early eagles by die variety.