page_title: Turban Head eagle
section_title: 1804 issues
hierarchical_section_title: Turban Head eagle / 1804 issues
caption_attribution_description: English: Only four are known of this 1804 "Plain 4" eagle.
context_page_description: The Turban Head eagle, also known as the Capped Bust eagle, was a ten-dollar gold piece, or eagle, struck by the United States Mint from 1795 to 1804. The piece was designed by Robert Scot, and was the first in the eagle series, which continued until the Mint ceased striking gold coins for circulation in 1933. The common name is a misnomer; Liberty does not wear a turban but a cap, believed by some to be a pileus or Phrygian cap: her hair twisting around the headgear makes it resemble a turban.
  The eagle was the largest denomination authorized by the Mint Act of 1792, which established the Bureau of the Mint. It was not struck until 1795, as the Mint at first struck copper and silver coins. The number of stars on the obverse was initially intended to be equal to the number of states in the Union, but with the number at 16, that idea was abandoned in favor of using 13 stars in honor of the original states. The initial reverse, featuring an eagle with a wreath in its mouth, proved unpopular and was replaced by a heraldic eagle.
context_section_description: Although the Mint coined 1803-dated eagles in 1804, a total of 3,757 eagles dated 1804 were struck in that year. These pieces, dubbed the "Crosslet 4" variety (Plain 4 eagles have a short projection of the cross-stroke of the 4 extending to the right of the upright, Crosslet 4 have short vertical extensions of the cross-stroke at the end of the projection), were extensively melted at the time, and the few known today are very collectible. R.S. Yeoman, in his  "Red Book" valuing US coins published during 2012, values the Crosslet 4 at $125,000 in MS-63 ranging down to $55,000 in more circulated, Almost Uncirculated-50 condition. Many surviving Turban Head eagles were sold by exchange agents to coin dealers or collectors in the 1850s and afterwards as the hobby became more popular and the pieces acquired a modest premium over their melt value.
  In 1834, the United States Government intended to present a set of then-current US coins to four Asian rulers the US had either made agreements with or else hoped to treat with. Neither the silver dollar nor the eagle had been struck since 1804, but they were still considered current coins. Putting the date of striking on the pieces would make them appear to be in violation of Jefferson's prohibition which remained in force. Mint Director Moore decided to strike 1804-dated dollars and eagles for the sets, and four 1804 eagles were struck. They differ from the pieces struck thirty years earlier, lacking a crosslet on the right side of the crossbar of the 4. Two were presented, to the Sultan of Muscat and the King of Siam, before the diplomat in charge of the expedition, Edmund Roberts, died of disease in Macao, and his mission was abandoned. The remaining two sets were returned to the United States.
  The existence of the Plain 4 pieces was revealed in 1869, when one was reproduced in the American Journal of Numismatics. The significance and history of the pieces was at first unrecognized, and the revelation prompted no particular excitement. How the pieces returned to US authorities came to be dispersed is unknown. The set given to the King of Siam was sold at auction by descendants of Anna Leonowens, who served as schoolteacher to the children of King Mongkut of Siam in the 1860s, although how it came into her possession is uncertain. Today, three of the pieces are in private collections, the fourth is in the Harry W. Bass, Jr. Collection, displayed in the Money Museum of the American Numismatic Association in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The Siam set sold most recently for $8.5 million.  From his experience of many years as a coin dealer, Albanese believes that the eagle in that set is not the original, but another of the four 1804 Plain 4 eagles, purchased to replace one sold to a collector.
caption: 1804 Plain 4 eagle, the only one on public display
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