1839 Eagle (1839 $10) Type 38 Large Letter, NGC AU58. Mint luster is seen within the devices of this buttery 1839 Gold Eagle. A few abrasion marks on Libertys cheek and the fields are in keeping with the grade and probably are what prevent this coin from a mint state grade. The strike is strong on both sides of the coin especially on the central details. Christian Gobrecht designed the eagle after a hiatus of thirty-four years. He used the Liberty Head Coronet motif, which shows a portrait of Liberty facing left. She is wearing a LIBERTY inscribed coronet with her hair tied in beads. Two curls flow down one behind her neck and one on the side. She is surrounded by thirteen six-pointed stars with the date below the truncation. Dentils are near the edge on both sides of the coin, and the edge is reeded. The reverse shows the eagle looking left with wings raised, a Union shield on its breast. Around it is UNITED STATES OF AMERICA with the denomination below written as TEN D. separated from the legend with dots. Gobrecht corrected the mistake in heraldry of the previous eagle. He placed the arrows in the eagles left talon and the olive branch in the right.

During the first two years of production of the gold eagle, the First Head had Large Letters with it. It continued in use until June 1839 and is sometimes called the Head of 1838. Later in the year the head was redesigned, made smaller, and the letters were smaller too. This one is sometimes called the New Portrait, Small Letters or Second Head, Small Letters. The present coin is the First Head, Large Letters or Head of 1839.

The Hard Times of 1838 to 1844 were times of high unemployment, low wages, and starvation. The affect on coinage was to reduce mintages because of less demand in commerce. The 1839 Large Letters type had an original mintage of 25,801.

In its population report NGC shows 27 graded in AU58 with 10 better.