$10 Liberty Head Gold Eagle Coin | AU

Half an Ounce of Classic US Gold

This is a genuine US gold coin, the $10 Liberty Head eagle, struck by the US Mint between 1838 and 1907. It holds 0.4838 troy ounces of gold, it grades About Uncirculated, and it sells for a fraction of what a Mint State example of the same coin costs.

 

The Coin

The $10 eagle circulated from 1838 to 1907, through westward expansion, the Civil War and the Gilded Age. Christian Gobrecht designed both faces: Liberty in a beaded coronet ringed by thirteen stars on the obverse, a heraldic eagle with a Union shield, olive branch and arrows on the reverse. The design barely changed in seventy years. Each coin is 90 percent gold and 10 percent copper, which is what gives circulated survivors their warm color and their durability.

 

What AU Means, and What Varies

About Uncirculated is a coin with light high-point wear and most of its original luster intact. On this type that means slight friction on Liberty’s hair and coronet and on the eagle’s wingtips, with sharp detail everywhere else. It is a grade below Mint State, and it is priced well below one.

 

You get a random common date between 1838 and 1907, chosen from stock, with no date or mintmark selection and no key dates. Coins struck from 1866 on carry IN GOD WE TRUST on the reverse; earlier ones do not, so which motto you get depends on the coin.

 

Pre-1933 US gold is scarcer than its mintages suggest, because a large share of it was melted after the 1933 recall. That history is part of why a Liberty eagle costs more over its gold value than a modern gold coin does.

 

Why Buy One

Strip the history away and it is still 0.4838 troy ounces of gold in a coin any dealer identifies on sight, roughly a century and a half old, in a 27 mm reeded format that stores as easily as any bullion coin. You are buying real numismatic history without paying a Mint State price for it.

 

Specifications

The coin measures 27 mm across and about 2.03 mm thick, with a reeded edge and a $10 face value. It is 90 percent gold and 10 percent copper, for 0.4838 troy ounces of pure gold in a coin of roughly 16.7 grams. The date is random and the grade is AU. Full details are on the Specifications tab.

 

$10 Liberty Eagle FAQ

 

What does AU condition mean for this coin?

About Uncirculated: light wear only on the highest points of the design, with most of the original mint luster still there and sharp detail elsewhere. It sits one step below Mint State.

 

Can I pick the date or the mint?

No. You receive a random date between 1838 and 1907, in common dates only. There is no date or mintmark selection and no key dates.

 

Will my coin have “In God We Trust”?

It depends on the coin. The motto was added to the reverse in 1866, so an earlier coin will not have it and an 1866 or later coin will. You get whichever is in stock.

 

How much gold is in a $10 Liberty eagle?

About 0.4838 troy ounces of pure gold. The full coin weighs roughly 16.7 grams and is 90 percent gold with 10 percent copper for hardness.

 

Why does it cost more over the gold price than a modern gold coin?

It is a pre-1933 US coin. Much of that gold coinage was melted after the 1933 gold recall, so the survivors carry a collector premium that newly minted bullion does not.

 

Building a set of classic US gold? Browse our pre-1933 US gold coins for other denominations and grades in stock.

 

The $10 Liberty Head Gold Eagle in AU returns to this page when stock comes back.