1885 Eagle - 1885 $10 NGC PF64 UCAM. This rare, outstanding 1885 Eagle Ultra Cameo Proof  has frosted devices that contrast sharply with bright, mirrored fields. The coin is fully struck with every detail clearly visible on both sides. The surfaces are original and clean except for a few scattered lint marks. No visible hairlines or slide marks are present on the coin, which looks about as fresh as the day it was minted.

Christian Gobrecht designed the eagle. He used a head of Venus with a slightly altered hair style that he took from a Benjamin West painting, replacing Robert Scots Turban Head with a completely new design. The coin shows Liberty facing to the left, to the West or perhaps the frontier, wearing a coronet inscribed with the word LIBERTY instead of a cap as on the previous design. Her hair is tied with beads and two long curls fall down, one on the back of her neck and the other below her ear. The design is similar to his Braided Hair Coronet motif used on Large Cents of 1839 to 1857. For the reverse, Gobrecht used a revised version of John Reichs eagle reverse. The new reverse shows the corrected heraldry, arrows in the left claw and olive branch in the right. The previous design had them mixed up causing confusing war-like symbolism. Gobrecht also removed the stars and clouds above the eagle and added the denomination TEN D. below. Previous eagles lacked this information because they were thought of as bullion and were valued by their weight and precious metal content as was the case with the European coins that circulated and were accepted in the United States.

The Type 2 eagle was created when the motto IN GOD WE TRUST was added to a banner above the eagle in 1866. The change was made in response to pressure organized by the Reverend M.R. Watkinson.

Both before and during the Civil War almost a dozen Protestant denominations pressured Congress to add references to God to the Constitution and other government documents. Reverend Watkinson was the first to write to Treasury Secretary Salmon Chase to request that Gods name be added to our coinage. His suggestion for a motto was God, Liberty, Law. Chase ordered Mint Director James Pollock to prepare a suitable motto. Pollocks suggestions included Our Trust Is In God, Our God And Our Country, and God Our Trust. Then Chase decided on In God We Trust to be added to most of the nations coinage. This motto was a subtle reminder that the North considered itself on the side of God with regard to the issue of slavery. A new law was required to allow the motto to be added since previous acts of Congress specified the mottos and devices that were permitted on coins. The new motto was placed on all coins that were deemed large enough to accommodate it. The motto remained until 1907, when President Theodore Roosevelt told Augustus Saint-Gaudens to omit it on the newly designed eagle.

Type 2 business strike Liberty Head eagle had a mintage of over thirty seven million; however, only 2,327 proofs were made for all dates, with no single year having more than 120 struck. Proof eagles before 1860 are exceedingly rare. Those struck between 1861 and 1880s are very rare. Coins of the 1880s to 1907 are rare because there was no real demand for them when they were issued. It wasnt until the decades of the 1930s and 1940s that collectors became interested in obtaining proof eagles. The NGC population reports for all proof eagles of 1838-1907 show only 835 coins certified for all dates in all grades. PCGS has certified 61 for the same period of time.

Christian Gobrecht was the third Chief Engraver at the United States Mint. He was born in Hanover, Pennsylvania in 1785. His father was a German immigrant, and his mother traced her ancestry to the early settlers of Plymouth, Massachusetts. Gobrecht married Mary Hewes in 1818. One of his early positions was as an engraver of clocks in Baltimore. Later he went to Philadelphia where he became a banknote engraver. He invented a machine that allowed one to convert a three-dimensional medal into an illustration. This was an excellent job and Gobrecht was understandably reluctant to work for the Mint for less money than he was making at the engraving firm. In order to persuade him to leave, Mint Director Robert Patterson prevailed upon Chief Engraver William Kneass, who had had a stroke, to take less in salary so more money would be available to hire Gobrecht on a permanent basis. In 1826 Gobrecht did his first work for the Mint as an assistant to Kneass. After Kneass stroke, Gobrecht did all the die and pattern work for the Mint. He became Chief Engraver in 1840 and served until his death in 1844. He was famous for his Liberty Seated motif which was used for all denominations of silver coinage including the half-dime, dime, quarter dollar, half dollar and silver dollar. He also designed the Liberty Head gold eagle, a motif that was also used on the half-cent, the cent, the gold quarter eagle, and the gold half eagle.

The 1885 proof eagle had an original mintage of 65 pieces. It is fundamentally rare in all grades; only 18 to 22 are known to exist today. In its population report, NGC shows 2 in PFUC64 with 3 better. PCGS has 2 in PRDC64 with 1 better, and these numbers do not account for crossovers or resubmissions.