1854-S $10 (1854 Gold Eagle) NGC AU53. This Western branch mint 1854-S Eagle shows bright mint luster in protected areas. Sufficient details in the lines of Libertys hair and on the eagles feathers are seen to allow for the grade. The original surfaces show no distractions worthy of individual mention. The soft strike is typical for branch mint coins that were issued before the Civil War.

Designed by Christian Gobrecht, the coin shows Liberty facing left 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, Scots eagle held the arrows and the olive branches in the wrong talons, is corrected. Except for the tips of the eagles 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 coin, and the edge is reeded. The large S mintmark appears below the juncture of arrows and olive branch and above the denomination.

This coin is the first of this denomination to be made at the San Francisco Mint.