1878-S $10 MS(PCGS#8682)

Spring 2022 U.S. Coins Auction

拍卖行

Stack's Bowers

批号

5309

等级

MS60

价格

129,905

详细说明

Rarely Offered Mint State 1878-S Liberty Head Ten 1878-S Liberty Head Eagle. MS-60 (PCGS). This is an impressive condition rarity to represent an otherwise relatively obtainable 1870s San Francisco Mint ten-dollar gold issue. Vivid rose-gold surfaces are fully lustrous with a frosty to modestly semi-reflective finish. The strike is sharp, the eye appeal is strong, and there are only wispy handling marks precluding a higher Mint State rating. Like the Philadelphia Mint, the facility in San Francisco stepped up eagle production in 1878 in anticipation of the government mandate that gold and paper currency would once again be exchangeable at par as of January 1, 1879. The mintage for the 1878-S amounted to 26,100 pieces, small in an absolute sense, but sufficiently large to help rank this issue as the second most plentiful S-Mint eagle from the 1870s. On the other hand, when the 26,100 1878-S eagles left the San Francisco Mint's presses, they received essentially no numismatic attention. The coins entered circulation where they performed yeoman duty in commerce for many years. Numismatists of the day were not interested in collecting coins by mintmark and generally preferred to acquire a Proof rather than a circulation strike. By the time mintmark collecting took off in the 1890s, what few 1878-S eagles remained in circulation were all heavily worn. Today, though the issue is not a particularly rare eagle in an absolute sense, the vast quantity of surviving pieces fall into either VF or EF grades and are seldom seen finer. There are a small group of coins that are Almost Uncirculated, but Mint State remains a brick wall that has only been scaled four times at PCGS. For Liberty Head gold coinage specialists trying to assemble a Mint State collection, this issue has long been a roadblock. That roadblock can be cleared with this offering, but only for the bidder with the most aggressive strategy. Once this coin sells is will likely be many years before a similar opportunity presents itself. Provenance: From the Fairmont Collection-Hendricks Set. PCGS Population: 3; with a single MS-64 finer. PCGS# 8682. NGC ID: 265L. Click here for certification details from PCGS. Image with the PCGS TrueView logo is obtained from and is subject to a license agreement with Collectors Universe, Inc. and its divisions PCGS and PSA. Click here to see Coins in Motion.[“Coins]