1797 Gold Eagle - The last of a short-lived series, minted from 1795 to (presumably) 1797, the 1797 small eagle Ten dollar gold piece is very rare. Its total mintage has been estimated to be between 1,250 and 3,615, with the majority of sources listing the latter number. All pieces were struck from a single die pair, which has some interesting and seldom encountered features. After these pieces were minted, the US Mint switched to an adjusted reverse design, but the obverse would not be used again for the mintage of the new heraldic eagle coins, apparently due to its damage encountered during minting this issue.

The obverse stars, commonly encountered on most classic United States coinage, are very oddly arranged on the 1797 eagles. A total of sixteen stars are featured, resembling every State in the Union up to that point (Tennessee had joined as the sixteenth state on June 1, 1796). The stars are arranged with eight to the left and the remaining four to the right of the bust, giving the whole left side a very crowded appearance. Why this has been done remains unclear, but this was the only appearance of the die as previously mentioned. Except for a few rare exceptions, all 1797 eagles show an obverse die crack which gradually advanced to a more advanced crack. It appears that the die soon broke and was considered to be unfit for coinage afterwards.

The above statement appears to be likely due to the reconstructed usage of the dies from these issues, in this case the reverse die used on 1797 eagles. Putting the emission sequence together by studying the advancements of die cracks, lapping and similar characteristics, Bass-Dannreuther have concluded that a number of 1796 eagles were struck after the majority, or all 1797 eagles had been struck. Their findings were published in Early U.S. Gold Coin Varieties, which has become the standard reference on the topic. This clearly indicates a common practice at the early United States Mint, where the employees cared little about the dates seen on the coins that were being minted on a specific day.

The reverse die had previously been used to strike a large number of 1796 eagles, which also were struck from a single die pair. When the 1797 eagles went into production, the dies had already clashed, and were lapped to hide imperfections as a result of the clashing. Because of the small mintage, no further progression in the die state has been discovered. It remains possible that a piece which was struck after the final mintage of 1796 eagles had been struck. If that has been the case, that die marriage, however, is currently not confirmed.

This type already is extremely scarce, with a small mintage and low surviving numbers. Of the 1797 eagles, approximately 60 pieces are known in all grades. Mint state survivors are extremely rare, with no more than a handful confirmed to exist. Public offerings are seldom seen, and when they do occur they often tend to be somewhat forgotten. The high prize of this series has resulted in a relative low number of collectors assembling sets of early gold coins by date. Subsequently most pieces are only included in type sets. As a result, most coins found are the much more common first year of issue, the 1795 ten dollar gold piece. That issue, however, still remains to be scarce and seldom found in problem-free condition.

As frequently encountered with this series, the majority of survivors are found in Extremely Fine to About Uncirculated grades. This indicates that all coins were put into circulation, and that those that were not exported to foreign countries circulated for some period in the country where they were minted. The pieces that are graded in lower grades are usually cleaned, damaged of are observed with other problems. While these pieces offer affordable chances for the budget-minded collector, most advanced collectors will only settle for the rare problem-free pieces.