1795 Eagle 9 Leaves - 1795 $10 9 Leaves NGC AU58. BD-3, 9 Leaves, R6, NGC AU58. Soft, smoldering mint luster and originality characterize this rare, 1795 Eagle near-Mint State. This 1795 Eagle coin is well struck with full details on most of Libertys hair and the feathers of the eagles wings. The dentils are strong on both sides. There is sufficient separation in the lines of Libertys hair and drapery to confirm the grade. The surfaces are original, clean, and, for the grade, free of individually significant abrasions, adjustments, or other distracting marks.

This 1795 Eagle coin is known as the king of the Small Eagle type. Only 18 to 22 examples are known in all grades, and it is the rarest of the seven known Small Eagle varieties. Bass and Dannreuther theorize that placing the 9 leaves on the branch was probably a deliberate experiment. The 13 leaves may have been too crowded, and the 9 leaves too sparse, which led to the use of 11 leaves in 1796.

The 1795 Eagle was designed by Robert Scot. The obverse shows a profile of Liberty facing right. Below her is the date which is off center to the left. Between the date and the word LIBERTY on the left side of the coin are 10 stars. Another 5 stars follow LIBERTY down to the bust. Liberty wears a large, soft cap. Her hair flows down and also shows on her forehead. The design was probably taken from a Roman engraving of a Greek goddess. Libertys cap was certainly not a Phrygian or liberty cap. The liberty cap, emblematic of freedom, was worn by freed slaves and freed gladiators in Roman times. It was a close fitting cap used to cover a shorn head, which was one of the ways slaves were identified. Because of the way Libertys hair strands wrap around it, the oversized cap has been called a turban, and the design has been called the Turban Head because of it. The reverse shows a skinny, unrealistic eagle standing on a palm branch. Its outstretched wings interrupt the legend, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Its head faces right. In its beak it holds a small laurel wreath. This motif, designed in 1795, was used on contemporary gold half eagles as well. The palm branch is said to be an oblique reference to Mint Director DeSaussure, who came from Charleston, South Carolina.

Thomas Jefferson chose Robert Scot to be the first Chief Engraver of the United States Mint on November 23, 1793. Scot was born in 1744 in Edinburgh, Scotland or England. (Documentary evidence is lacking as to where he was born.) He was trained as a watchmaker in England and learned engraving afterwards. He moved to the United States in 1777, where he worked as an engraver of plates, bills of exchange, and office scales. During the Revolution, he was an engraver of paper money. In 1780 he was made the State Engraver of Virginia. He moved to Philadelphia the next year. He was appointed Chief Engraver of the United States Mint on November 23, 1793 by David Rittenhouse, Mint Director. His salary in 1795 was $1,200 per year. The Mint Director received only $800 dollars per year more. Scots ability to make dies was limited, and he was advanced in years with failing eyesight. His work was somewhat less than that done in Europe at the time, and Scot was criticized for its poor quality. He was responsible for designs of most of Americas first coins. These include the Flowing Hair and the Draped Bust motifs used on the early silver coins, and the gold quarter eagle, half eagle and eagle. Scot also designed the 1794-1797 half cent, the 1800-1808 draped bust half cent, and the Thomas Jefferson Indian Peace Medal. Scot died on November 1, 1823 and was succeeded by William Kneass as Chief Engraver.

Henry William DeSaussure was appointed 2nd Mint Director on July 8, 1795 by President George Washington after Rittenhouse resigned. DeSaussure was a jurist and state legislator from South Carolina, framer of the South Carolina Constitution in 1789 and participant in the founding of South Carolina College that later became the University of South Carolina. He had been a delegate from South Carolina to the Constitutional convention. He later became a justice of the South Carolina Equity Court, which was also known as the chancery court. He wrote much of South Carolinas state law, which is still in use today. He also served as mayor of Charleston and Columbia South Carolina. As a leading member of the Federalist Party after the Revolution, Washington appointed him Mint Director. However, after only four months in the position, DeSaussure resigned because of his disdain for the post and the unrelenting attacks by Congress over the Mints expenditures. The first gold coins were struck during the months he was Mint Director.

Record keeping in the Mints early years was fairly inaccurate. At the end of the eighteenth century Philadelphia had recovered from the British occupation and Revolutionary War. It was the second largest city in the English-speaking world, but it could do nothing to protect its citizens from the mosquito-borne epidemic of yellow fever. Its wealthy citizens went to the countryside to escape, and the poor grimly waited their fate. Of course these annual epidemics caused havoc with all manufacturing that required continuity, such as a coinage sequence. In addition to yellow fever, chaos at the Mint was also caused by chronic bullion shortages, coin dies that would wear out and had to be re-engraved because they were not taken out of production until they failed completely, and a Chief Engraver, Robert Scot, who was in his seventies and had failing eyesight.

The estimated mintage of the 1795 Eagle, Small Eagle, 9 Leave eagle is 210 to 500. With a Rarity 6 rating, 18 to 22 pieces are known to exist in all grades. In its population report, NGC shows 6 in AU58 with 3 better. PCGS shows 0 in AU58 with 7 better. These numbers do not account for crossovers or resubmissions.