My Favorite Coins: Indian Head Eagle
Saint-Gaudens’ Indian Head is just the head of Liberty crowned with an Indian war bonnet a la James B. Longacre’s Indian Head cent.
My favorite coin for this column is an NGC-certified MS63 Indian Head Eagle or a $10 gold piece. As you can see, it has CAC certification with a Green Bean.
I did not buy the coin for its rarity. In fact, with the highest mintage in the Indian Head Eagle series at nearly 4.5 million, it’s the kind of coin that most people purchase for their type sets. And that’s indeed why I bought it, for a 20th-century type set of U.S. gold coins.
The coin’s design was by famed sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, who also created the Double Eagle ($20 gold piece) that bears his name. If you like the depictions of Native Americans seen on the Buffalo nickel (James Earle Fraser) and the quarter and half eagle Indian Head designs (Bela Lyon Pratt), then you may not appreciate Saint-Gaudens’ Indian Head. Obviously, Fraser and Pratt were going for realism, Saint-Gaudens for Art with a capital “A.”
Saint-Gaudens’ Indian Head is just the head of Liberty crowned with an Indian war bonnet a la James B. Longacre’s Indian Head cent. Writing in United States Coinage: A Study by Type, Ron Guth, and Jeff Garrett said this about Saint-Gaudens’ Indian Head gold piece: “His final vision was quite impressive from an artistic standpoint, but his designs were a trifle fantastic. The front of the coin features what appears to be an Indian chief, but the head is actually that of Miss Liberty, wearing a ceremonial headdress with the word LIBERTY placed incongruously on the headband. No such Indian ever existed.”
But what about the reverse? Surely, Guth and Garrett liked the striding eagle. Well, they didn’t. According to the authors, “. . . the reverse featured a stylized eagle, supposedly representing an American bald eagle, but anatomically incorrect as such, with oversized, unnaturally long legs.”
Instead of accepting this criticism at face value, I compared the legs and feet on my coin with an online image of the legs and feet of a bald eagle. What I found from watching a video of a bald eagle standing still and then walking is that the bird’s legs appear squat and short when it’s standing still but longer and more like St. Gaudens’ bald eagle when the bird is walking. So, if you assume that the bird on the reverse of the $10 gold piece is taking a step forward, thus starting to walk, then St. Gaudens’ depiction is reasonably accurate. That’s my opinion, at any rate.
As I said earlier, I bought this coin for type. I soon learned that this isn’t the only type in the series. It’s Type 2, identified as having the motto “In God We Trust” on the reverse. Type 1, minted in 1907 and 1908, does not have the motto. For my 20th-century gold type collection, I need to purchase a Type 1 example. If I can find one, it shouldn’t be too pricey, as examples were minted in fairly large quantities in 1907 and 1908.
Collecting the series is another matter entirely, as there are some rarities at both the beginning and the end. Minted between 1907 and 1933, Mike Fuljenz, writing in Indian Gold Coins of the 20th Century, listed 32 different date/mintmark combinations.
Although a fairly large number were minted in 1933 (312,500), this was the year that Franklin Roosevelt signed the law stopping the production and release of U.S. gold coins. As a result of this law, most of the 1933s were melted, and Fuljenz assigned the date an overall rarity of 1 of 32. Unlike the 1933 Double Eagle, “The 1933 Eagle is the only gold coin with this magical date to be considered legal... . At one point, it was believed that fewer than two dozen examples were known, but this estimate seems to be on the low side, and the actual number is more likely to be somewhere in the area of three to four dozen.”
What’s it worth? The 2024 Red Book (A Guidebook of United States Coins) cited a June 2016 Goldberg auction value of $881,250 for a coin in MS66 condition. This magazine gives values of $165,000, $225,000, and $408,000 for MS60, -63, and -65 coins, respectively. Fuljenz concluded his discussion by writing, “Ownership of a 1933 is considered one of the highlights of an advanced set of Indian Head Eagles.”
The series has four pricey dates before 1933: 1907 Wire Edge, periods before and after the legend; 1907 Rolled Edge, with periods 1920-S and 1930-S.
With a mintage of just 500 pieces, the 1907 Wire Edge Eagles were special issues that were collected as part of the series. Think 1856 Flying Eagle cent. According to Fuljenz, “They most closely represent the original concept which sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens and President Theodore Roosevelt imagined the new Indian Head coins to look like.” According to Fuljenz, “Probably more than half of the original mintage figure of 500 coins is still known to exist.” Values in the November 2024 Numismatic News Coin Market (CM) range from $11,000 in VF20 to $124,000 in MS65.
The Rolled Edge 1907 is even scarcer and pricier, with values ranging from $24,500 in VF20 to $325,000 in MS65. Fuljenz gives a mintage of “50” and a note reading, “31,500 were struck, but most were melted down.” According to him, this coin “. . . is a legendary rarity, which is considered as one of the true trophy coins’ among 20th century United States gold issues.”
With a mintage of 216,500, “The 1920-S is the third rarest Indian Head Eagle from the standpoint of availability in all grades.” According to Fuljenz, many of the 1920-S were used in circulation “. . . as more are known in circulated grades than in Mint State.” In addition, many were melted. “For the serious date collector, the 1920-S will prove to be one of the hardest Indian Head Eagles to find. Only a few examples are offered for sale each year. . . .” Values in CM range from $16,500 in VF20 to $200,000 in MS65.
With 96,000 minted, Fuljenz ranked the 1930-S fourth in overall rarity. Unlike the other rare dates, Fuljenz didn’t explain the date’s scarcity. In fact, he appeared to confuse it with the extremely common 1932, and his last paragraph for the date begins, “The 1932 Eagle is extremely common . . ..” Values in CM for the 1930-S range from $14,000 in VF20 to $139,700 in MS65.
The four coins I’ve just discussed are extremely pricey dates. The 1911-D is somewhat affordable in circulated grades but is worth $220,000 in MS65, which is definitely not affordable for most of us. Fuljenz called it “. . . the most conditionally challenging coin in the series.” This means that it is relatively inexpensive in lower grades but is worth megabucks as the condition increases. In XF40, for example, CM values it at a “paltry” $2,100.
If you look at the values of all the dates in the series, what stands out is that most of them are relatively inexpensive in either XF40 or AU50. When I say relatively inexpensive, what I mean is that the coins are priced fairly close to their bullion value. With each $10 gold piece having nearly half an ounce of gold (.48375), the bullion value alone is $1,150, and CM values the “common” dates at $1,291, with gold at $2,675.28 an ounce when the November CM was published.
Now that I’ve discovered that I need a $10 Indian Head gold piece without a motto for my gold-type set, my task will be to find one that’s reasonably priced. Wish me luck!
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