LIBERTY HEAD (NO
MOTTO ON REVERSE) TEN DOLLARS OR GOLD EAGLE (1838-1866)
Gobrecht’s
Coronet Eagle Liberty Head, No Motto
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 Gobrecht’s Coronet Eagle Liberty, Head
No Motto. The size, weight, and fineness were reduced so
that the Coronet Eagle Liberty Head, No Motto coins were
not intrinsically worth more than their denominated value.
The Coronet Eagle Liberty Head, No Motto
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, Scot’s eagle held the
arrows and the olive branches in the wrong talons, is corrected.
Except for the tips of the eagle’s 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 Gobrecht’s Coronet Eagle Liberty, Head No Motto
coin, and the edge is reeded.
During the first two years of production,
the First Head had Large Letters with it. It continued in
use until June 1839 and is sometimes called the “Head
of 1838.” Later in the year the head was redesigned,
made smaller, and the letters were smaller too. This one
is sometimes called the “New Portrait, Small Letters”
or “Second Head, Small Letters.”
Generally speaking Coronet Eagle Liberty
Head, No Motto coins had low mintages. While a few years
had large mintages of more than 200,000, most were significantly
less. Some dates are difficult to obtain because their mintages
were limited or they were not saved. From 1840 to 1841 small
numerals were used. These were the same as for the cents
of that year. In 1842 both large and small numerals were
used. The same is true for the 1850 and 1854-O eagles. In
1844 Gobrecht died and Longacre became the Engraver. His
job consisted mainly of punching the dates and mintmarks
into the working dies. He made several blunders including
1846-O, 6 over 5; 1849 over 1848; 1853, 3 over 2; and 1865-S,
865/inverted 186. In this last one, the three numbers were
entered upside down and then corrected. The Hard Times,
which saw high unemployment and starvation, was one of the
reasons for the limited mintages through the mid 1840’s.
Later double eagles, which were first used in 1850, were
preferred over eagles for large commercial and international
transactions.
In 1859 Engraver Longacre prepared a new
reverse that was used on Philadelphia coins until 1865.
On them the eagle’s claws are thinner and shorter.
This change is not seen on the branch mint coins because
they were using 1857-1858 dies.
The last date for the Coronet Eagle Liberty Head, No Motto
was supposed to have been 1865. However in 1866, 8,500 S
mint No Motto coins were issued because the new reverse
die had not arrived in San Francisco. Later that year when
more eagles were made, 11,500 With Motto 1866-S coins were
minted.
 TEN DOLLARS OR EAGLE (1838-1866).jpg)