US Rare Coin Investments
is pleased to present you with this absolutely
gorgeous 1914-D Indian $10 Eagle graded MS67
by NGC! This MS67 Gem quality gold coin is among
the 20th centuries finest conditional rarities
in any gold denomination. With an auction sale
in early 2013 for a PCGS CAC specimen of just
under $90,000.00 we think this NGC graded specimen
at just under 40K ( not a typo ) represents
a fantastic value for an advanced collector,
a 20th century gold specialist or investor on
one of the rarest gold coins graded by NGC with
a mere 6 coins grade in this lofty grade at
NGC with NONE FINER at either service. $39,950.00
1914-D $10
Indian NGC MS67. Close to perfection and tied
for the finest known at both NGC and PCGS
is this Superb Gem Western branch mint 1914-D
Indian Head eagle. The coin is well struck
with full details on the Indian’s hair,
the vanes of the feathers, and the shoulder
of the eagle. The coin shows yellow gold color
and is fully lustrous and frosty. The colors
and luster attest to its originality. The
surfaces are clean with no visible abrasion
marks or other distractions. It is a magnificent,
eye-appealing piece that shows the beauty
of the Saint-Gaudens’ design.
The Indian Head eagle was
minted from 1907 to 1933. In 1905 President
Theodore Roosevelt visited the Smithsonian
Institution and saw an exhibit of ancient
Greek coins. He admired their high relief
and bold designs and prevailed upon his friend
Augustus Saint-Gaudens, who was in failing
health, to design new gold coinage for the
United States. Saint-Gaudens, who agreed with
Roosevelt that the country’s coinage
was hideous, redesigned the eagle and double
eagle coins. Since Saint-Gaudens died in August,
1907, it is believed that the only new coin
he actually saw was the gold eagle. The high
relief of Saint-Gaudens’ Indian Head
Eagle was criticized by Mint Engraver Charles
Barber and other Mint workers.
The obverse consists of a
close up profile of a head of Liberty facing
left. Above her unrealistic war bonnet are
thirteen stars in an arc. Below the truncation
is the date. The origin of the profile is
Saint-Gaudens’ own statue of Nike which
is part of his memorial to General Sherman
and can still be seen at the southern entrance
to Central Park in New York City. Alice Butler
was the model for the sculpture. Originally
Saint-Gaudens wanted to place a wreath on
Liberty’s head, but President Roosevelt
insisted that it be a feathered war bonnet
to give the coin a more nationalistic appeal.
(Roosevelt also asked Saint-Gaudens to switch
the designs of the eagle and double eagle
coins. He felt that the close profile was
more suited to an eagle size coin and that
the striding figure of Liberty was better
on the double eagle.)
The reverse of Saint-Gaudens’
Indian Head Eagle shows a powerful standing
eagle that is suggestive of Egyptian art.
It shows the eagle standing on a bundle of
arrows that resemble fasces. In Roman iconography,
fasces symbolized the power to kill or the
power of life and death. Held on top of the
arrows by the eagle’s talon is the olive
branch, the traditional symbol of peace. Above
the eagle’s head is UNITED STATES OF
AMERICA and in the right field is the motto
E PLURIBUS UNUM. The denomination TEN DOLLARS
is below. On its edge, the coin has forty-six
raised stars.
Roosevelt, a deeply religious
man, felt that it was blasphemous to have
God’s name on a coin. Coins were used
for gambling, prostitution, hiring assassins,
and worse. So he asked Saint-Gaudens to omit
the motto “In God We Trust.”
The first eagles of this design
were struck, as were the ancient coins that
Roosevelt admired, in high relief. They also
had a knife rim or wire edge. This rim is
a narrow piece of coin metal outside the border
that is caused by the pressure between the
dies and the collar. Its presence is annoying
to those in commerce and banking because it
often prevents the coins from stacking. Also
these rims can cause ejections problems sometimes
causing the new coins get stuck in the coining
chamber. For these and other reasons, Charles
Barber opposed the high relief coins. Despite
his objections, a few were issued in 1907.
The next year Barber lowered the relief when
the motto was added.
There are two main types of
Indian Head Eagles. The first is the No Motto
or Type 1, which has a few varieties, with
and without wire rims (also called rounded
rims), periods before and after the motto,
and a no periods variety. The second type
has the motto IN GOD WE TRUST added to the
reverse left field. The coins of this type
were minted mid 1908 to the end of the series
in 1933. Since the change to add the motto
was made in the middle of the year, 1908 had
both the No Motto and Motto on Reverse types.
Most likely the members of Congress who advocated
for the addition of the motto on the coinage
were trying to prove that they were not atheists.
Obviously they were not particularly concerned
about maintaining the separation between church
and state. In 1912 two more stars were added
to the rim to reflect the statehood of Arizona
and New Mexico.
Augustus Saint-Gaudens was
born in Ireland, the son of a shoemaker. He
became one of America’s 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 1890’s
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.
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 at the request of President Theodore
Roosevelt, for whom he had earlier designed
the second inaugural medal.
The population reports of
both NGC and PCGS show the present coin tied
for the finest known with 5 others at NGC
and 3 at PCGS. These numbers do not account
for crossovers or resubmissions. So here is
an opportunity to add a superb 1914-D eagle
to a fine numismatic cabinet.
AND NOW YOU HAVE A CHANCE TO PURCHASE
THIS 1914-D $10 INDIAN NGC MS67. BUY
IT HERE !
