1889 Eagle - 1889 $10 PCGS MS60. This low mintage, Mint State, 1889 Eagle shows significant mint luster and is has a rich, yellow-gold color. This 1889 Eagle coin is well struck with full details seen on the highest points of Libertys hair, the centers of the stars, the eagles neck, and the area to the lower left of the shield. This 1889 Eagle coin shows no wear, as expected for a Mint State coin. Only some light abrasion marks keep it from a higher Mint State grade. The surfaces of this 1889 Eagle are original, fully lustrous, and clean for the grade.

Christian Gobrecht designed the Liberty Head or Coronet half eagle. The coin shows Liberty facing left in profile wearing a LIBERTY inscribed coronet with her hair tied in the back with beads. Two long curls hang down her neck, one in the back and the other on the side. She is surrounded with thirteen six-pointed stars. The date is below the truncation, which shows no drapery. The motif is taken from a Benjamin West painting of Venus. It was also used with modifications for the Large Cents of 1839. The reverse shows a heraldic eagle with outstretched wing looking to the left. On its chest is the Union shield. In its talons it holds the olive branch and arrows. Except for the tips of the eagles wings UNITED STATES OF AMERICA surrounds the reverse, separated from the denomination FIVE D. by dots. Dentils are near the edge on both sides of the coin, and the edge is reeded. Type 2 was created when the motto IN GOD WE TRUST was added to a banner designed by James B. Longacre 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 Mark Richards 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 1889 Eagle had an original mintage of only 4,440. In its population report, PCGS has this 1889 Eagle coin tied for third finest with 16 others in MS60 and 33 better.