page_title: Indian Head eagle
section_title: Collecting
hierarchical_section_title: Indian Head eagle / Collecting
caption_attribution_description: English: Image of ancient Hellenistic Egyptian coin inscribed King Ptolomey (BASILEOS PTOLOMAION) in Principal Gold and Silver Coin of the Ancients by Barclay C. Head. Showing the Eagle of Zeus holding a thunderbolt
context_page_description: The Indian Head eagle was a $10 gold piece or eagle struck by the United States Mint continuously from 1907 until 1916, and then irregularly until 1933. The obverse and reverse were designed by sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, originally commissioned for use on other denominations. He was suffering from cancer and did not survive to see the coins released.
  Beginning in 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt proposed new, more artistic designs on US coins, prompting the Mint to hire Saint-Gaudens to create them. Roosevelt and Saint-Gaudens at first considered a uniform design for the four denominations of coins which were struck in gold, but in 1907 Roosevelt decided to use a model for the obverse of the eagle that the sculptor had meant to use for the cent. For the reverse of the $10 coin, the President decided on a design featuring a standing bald eagle that had been developed for the Saint-Gaudens double eagle $20 coin, while the obverse features a left-facing bust of Liberty wearing an Indian feather headdress.
context_section_description: With the exception of the 1907 high relief pieces, no date or mintmark of the circulation strikes of the Indian Head eagle before 1920 is particularly rare.  The 1911-D, with a mintage of 30,100 commands a significant premium in mint state or uncirculated condition, but only a modest one in circulated grades.  Despite its mintage of 126,500, the 1920-S is a major rarity.  It was little collected at the time, and with Europe still recovering from the war, few coins were exported there; accordingly, most were melted post-1933.  Only a handful of 1933 eagles were distributed before Roosevelt ended the paying out of gold, and virtually the entire mintage of 312,500 was melted.  One sold in 2004, graded MS-66 (the finest example of this date known) for $718,750.  Approximately forty 1933 eagles are known to have survived.
  Proof coins were struck from 1907 until 1915, all at Philadelphia.  Not all quantities are known, but the highest for which the number struck is known is 1910, with a mintage of 204 (one sold for $80,500 in 2006).  One of the surviving specimens of the mostly melted rounded rim pieces is in proof; this unique specimen is in private hands.  Numismatic expert Mike Fuljenz, in his book on the gold pieces with Indian designs struck in the early 20th century, suggests that this coin was a trial piece, resulting from the test of new dies.  Different finishes are known for the proof coins.  The unique 1907 piece is in satin proof (the raised designs appear like satin), but later proof eagles were struck in a dark matte finish.  Some 1908–1910 proof eagles were struck in a lighter "Roman finish".
caption: Saint-Gaudens is said to have been given inspiration for his standing eagle design from this illustration of an Ancient Egyptian coin.
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