1908-D No Motto $10 (1908-D No Motto Eagle) PCGS MS64. This premium quality, highly lustrous 1908-D Eagle is tied for third finest. The mint luster, which is usually dull on coins of this date, is especially prominent on the Indians forehead with highlights on her face as well as the upper and lower portions of the obverse. On the reverse, the eagles head, breast, and lower body feathers are illuminated along with the denomination. As expected for an almost gem coin, not a trace of wear is found. The surfaces are clean for the grade and free of any significant distractions. The coins of this issue are always weak in the centers. On this piece, the strike is above average with most of the vanes in the Indians feathers showing and most of the feathers on the shoulder of the eagle clearly visible.

Augustus Saint-Gaudens was born in Ireland, the son of a shoemaker. He became one of Americas most successful sculptors of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In 1848, his family moved from Dublin to New York before his first birthday. When he was thirteen, Saint-Gaudens left school and became an apprentice to a cameo cutter. He also took classes at Cooper Union and the National Academy of Design. When he was nineteen, he moved to Europe where he studied classical art and architecture.

His first commission was a statue of Admiral Farragut that is still in Madison Square Park in New York. By the 1890s Saint-Gaudens had produced his statues of Diana and Abraham Lincoln, both considered some of his greatest works. He also created works such as the Robert Gould Shaw Memorial on Boston Common and the equestrian monument to Civil War general John A. Logan in Chicago. He became part of a group of new artists and architects and worked for an architectural firm for whom he produced a group of monuments and decorative sculpture. Throughout his career, he worked with architects creating works that were designed specifically for the sites they were building. At the entrance to New Yorks Central Park is his bronze statue of General Sherman led by Victory. It took him eleven years to complete this project.

Saint-Gaudens moved to his summer home in Cornish, New Hampshire in 1900. Joined there by a community of artists, Saint-Gaudens spent his final years. He died of stomach cancer in 1907 just after he created the beautiful high relief models for the eagle and double eagle coins.

Responding to President Theodore Roosevelts request, sculptor, designer Augustus Saint-Gaudens created a new gold eagle. Saint-Gaudens, Roosevelts personal friend for years, had designed Roosevelts inaugural medal, and the new president was very happy with his work. For the new eagle, Saint-Gaudens chose the Indian Princess design. It had a bust of Liberty wearing an Indian feathered war bonnet. Roosevelt felt that the contemporary United States coinage was atrociously hideous, and Saint-Gaudens agreed. An idealized Indian war bonnet was used to give the coin a distinctly nationalistic character. Because of its use, the coin wound up being known as the Indian Head Eagle. Saint-Gaudens used as his model the figure of Nike, which was part of his sculpture of the Sherman Monument at the entrance to New Yorks Central Park. Thirteen stars are seen in an arc above the head, and the date is below the truncation of the neck. The reverse of the coin shows a magnificent standing eagle, reminiscent of Egyptian designs. It is standing on a log with arrows and an olive branch in its talons. In an arc above it are the words UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Below the eagle is the written denomination, TEN DOLLARS and above its wings is the motto E PLURIBUS UNUM. Instead of a reeded edge, there are forty-six raised stars on the edge, which represented the states of the union at the time. The mintmark is above and to the left of the olive branch.

In grades above MS-63, the 1908-D No Motto eagle is one of the most difficult coins to obtain. Few original coins were saved because the novelty of the new design had worn off. In its population report, PCGS has certified 38 1908-D No Motto eagles in MS64 with 7 better.