1842 Liberty Head Eagle. Small Date, Plain 4. EF-45 (PCGS).

This is a significant and thoroughly desirable example of a scarce early date Liberty Head eagle. Both sides exhibit lovely olive-gold color. The strike is generally sharp, coming up just a bit short over a few of the stars around the obverse border. Lustrous, modestly semi-reflective and exceptionally appealing at the assigned grade level, this delightful piece will attract bids from advanced collectors of Liberty Head gold coinage. The Small Date is by far the rarer of the two date logotypes that comprise the Philadelphia Mint's production of ten-dollar gold eagles in 1842. It was the first variety of the issue produced, and is distinguished from its Large Date counterpart not only by the size of the digits in the logotype, but also by having a plain 4 as opposed to a crosslet 4. The mintage of the 1842 Small Date is just 18,623 pieces, as opposed to 62,884 coins for the 1842 Large Date, and Small Date survivors are at least twice as rare.

PCGS# 8585. NGC ID: 262L.

From the Fairmont Collection - Mont Blanc Set.

Estimate: $1200