1903-O Eagle - 1903-O $10 NGC MS63. This crusty, premium quality, Southern branch mint, mint state 1903-O Eagle shows significant mint luster in protected areas. Aside from a couple of minor copper spots above the date, the coin is clean and original. As expected for a mint state piece, no wear is seen. The strike is sharp with full details seen on Libertys hair, the centers of the stars, the eagles neck, and the area to the lower left of the shield. The scuff mark across the olive branch stem and arrow is on the holder not the coin.

Between 1805, when President Thomas Jefferson ordered mintage of gold eagles stopped, and 1837 no gold eagles were made. Coinage was of this denomination was resumed with Christian Gobrechts Coronet Liberty Head eagle. The size, weight, and fineness were reduced so that the coins were not intrinsically worth more than their denominated value.

The Coronet eagle shows Liberty facing left in profile wearing a LIBERTY inscribed coronet with her hair tied in the back in 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. The error in the previous issue, Scots eagle held the arrows and the olive branches in the wrong talons, is corrected. Except for the tips of the eagles wings UNITED STATES OF AMERICA surrounds the reverse, separated from the denomination TEN D. by dots. Dentils are near the edge on both sides of the coin, and the edge is reeded. The motto IN GOD WE TRUST was added to a banner designed by James B. Longacre above the eagle in 1866.

In 1826 Gobrecht did his first work for the Mint as an assistant to Kneass. After Kneass suffered a debilitating 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 sliver coinage including the half-dime, dime, quarter dollar, half dollar and sliver 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.