1795 $10 (1795 Gold Eagle) 13 Leaves, NGC AU53. Early Gold Eagle. This premium quality 1795 Eagle shows sufficient separation in the lines of Libertys hair and the folds of her cap and drapery to warrant the grade. Some mint luster remains within the devices on both sides. The strike is strong in the centers and shows some details on the right-side stars and the eagles breast feathers. Light adjustment marks are limited to the right reverse border and do not detract from the overall quality of the coin.

The half eagles of 1795 were the first gold coins struck by the United States Mint, but the eagles are the largest gold coins and highest denomination made until the double eagles of 1850. They demonstrated the economic strength of the newly founded nation. The series of Capped Bust, Small Eagle coins consisted of three dates from 1795 to 1797. (In 1797 both Small and Large eagle coins were made.) During these years George Washington and John Adams were presidents of the United States.

Robert Scot, the Mint Engraver, designed the coin. The obverse shows Liberty facing right. Below her 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 eight stars. Another five stars follow LIBERTY down to the bust. (Another issue of 1798 had fourteen stars.) Liberty wears a large, soft cap. Her hair flows down and also shows on her forehead. The bust is strangely draped for a classical design. Scot thought he was imitating the ancients. 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 way slaves were identified. The oversized cap worn by Liberty has been called a turban, and the design has been called the Turban Head because of it. Scots $10.00 Small Eagle reverse shows a skinny, unrealistic eagle standing on a palm branch. Its outstretched wings interrupt the legend, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Its head faces right. In its beak it holds a small laurel wreath. This motif, designed in 1795, was used on contemporary gold half eagles as well. The palm branch is said to be an oblique reference to Mint Director DeSaussure, who came from Charleston, South Carolina. Dentils are around the peripheries of both sides of the coin, and the edge is reeded.

There are two varieties of the eagle, the 9 Leaves and the 13 Leaves. The present coin is an example of the latter. The early eagle coins have no denomination because gold was valued by its weight and fineness as was the European coinage of the time.

Thomas Jefferson chose Robert Scot to be the first Chief Engraver of the United States Mint on November 23, 1793. Scott 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 the early silver coins, and the gold quarter eagle, half eagle and eagle. Scot also designed the 1794-1797 half cent, the 1800-1808 draped bust half cent, and the Thomas Jefferson Indian Peace Medal. Scot died on November 1, 1823 and was succeeded by William Kneass as Chief Engraver.

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, difficulties at the Mint were 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.

All Capped Bust, Small Eagle Reverse gold eagle coins are rare and eagerly sought after in any condition by both collectors and investors because of their historic significance and importance. In total 13,344 were minted for all three dates in the series, with 5,583 for 1795. In its population report, NGC has certified 2 with 13 Leaves in AU53 with 29 better.