1893-O Eagle - 1893-O $10 NGC MS62. Eliasberg. This Southern branch mint, Mint State 1893-O Eagle has shimmering mint luster within protected areas of both sides of the coin and comes with the provenance of the famous Eliasberg collection. The coin is well struck with full details on the highest points of Libertys hair, the centers of the stars, the eagles neck, and the area to the lower left of the shield. Just a few abrasion marks, none of individual significance, keep this piece from a higher Mint State grade. This eye-appealing piece is well preserved and completely original.

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 Gobrechts 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 Liberty Head, No Motto eagle 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, 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 Type 2 eagle was created when the motto IN GOD WE TRUST was added to a banner designed by James B. Longacre above the eagle in 1866. The change was made in response to pressure organized by the Reverend M.R. Watkinson. The motto remained until 1907, when President Theodore Roosevelt told Augustus Saint-Gaudens to omit it on the newly designed eagle.

While the 1893-O eagle is not especially rare, NGC reports 87 in MS62 with 11 better, not many have the Eliasberg provenance. Louis Eliasberg, Sr. was a financier who in 1950 assembled the only complete collection of United States coins with all dates and mints. Although it did not differentiate between circulation strikes and proofs, it was the most comprehensive and famous collection of U.S. coins ever made and will probably never be duplicated.