1857 LIBERTY HEAD $10 MS61

CHOICE SATIN LUSTROUS SURFACES. CONDITION CENSUS. ONLY TWO MS62 COINS GRADED HIGHER. With just 16,606 pieces produced, the 1857 has the lowest mintage of any Philadelphia Mint Eagle since the 1844. Such was the dearth of numismatists in the United States during the 1850s that this fact remained unnoticed at the time of delivery, thus allowing virtually the entire mintage to slip into circulation. Once there, the coins were used until worn down below the AU grade level or, more likely, they were lost or destroyed. Fortunate is the collector that can locate even an AU-50 in today's market, while Mint State coins are so rare that they are the province of a select group of dedicated gold specialists. In our opinion, there is no better indication of the rarity of the 1857 Eagle in Mint State than this comment by Jeff Garret and Ron Guth in the 2006 Encyclopedia of U.S. Gold Coins : "...three of the nine examples recovered from the wreck of the S.S. Central America were Mint State, effectively doubling the population of Uncirculated pieces!"