DWN Sells the Finest Known 1906-O $10.00

The 2024 FUN show represented an important buying opportunity for my firm Douglas Winter Numismatics. Every January, I come loaded for bear at this show. Typically, I am low on coins and high on cash which means I am more aggressive at this show than I am at any other show during the year. I’m always looking for superb-quality, one-of-a-kind rarities (not just at FUN, by the way…), and sometimes they find me in unexpected ways.

One of my absolute favorite purchases of this show was the finest known 1906-O $10, graded MS66 by PCGS and housed in an old green label holder (OGH). I grade the coin MS66+/MS67 by today’s standards, and I feel it is from a condition and appearance standpoint one of the five finest New Orleans eagles of the With Motto type.

1906-O $10.00 PCGS MS66 CAC, Old Green Holder

Before I get into the specifics of this coin, let me give you some background information on the 1906-O eagle. This is a numismatically significant issue as it is the final eagle produced at this mint. It is the third scarcest late date eagle (i.e., the issues produced between 1888 and 1906) from New Orleans and, as with every With Motto eagle from New Orleans, Gems are extremely rare or—in many cases—nonexistent. Until a few years ago, the 1906-O was scarce in MS62 and MS63, and virtually unknown in MS64 and above. In the last decade, a few significant hoards have entered the market. In 2017 I purchased an original group of 27 pieces which were mostly MS62 and MS63, but which also contained five coins in MS64 as well as a single Gem graded MS65 by PCGS. Fairmont has also contributed some nice 1906-O eagles, but none of these have graded higher than PCGS/CAC MS63.

The coin itself has the sort of pristine look which you find only on a tiny handful of early 20th century US gold pieces. I immediately felt that this was a Clapp/Eliasberg pedigreed piece as it has the same fresh-from-the-mint appearance which the small number of gold coins I have seen or sold from this source all display. John Clapp—a truly visionary collector who appreciated superb gem coins before 99% of all collectors and dealers) did—obtained a number of New Orleans and San Francisco gold coins directly from the mint and sold them along with the rest of his exceptional collection to Louis Eliasberg in 1942.

I then did a quick search of my favorite online coin resource—the Newman Numismatic Portal (NNP)—and looked for an Eliasberg catalog. The coin had a crummy halftone image but even then I could see that there was a very distinguishing nick on the obverse adjacent to star eleven. When I returned home, I looked through my personal copy of the sale (annotated by a well-known West Coast dealer who attended the sale and who made meticulous notes on every lot). He commented on this mark as well.

It was clear that this was not the Eliasberg coin. So, where was this coin from?

In the 2020 update of my book on New Orleans gold coinage I listed two PCGS MS66 examples of this date: the RARCOA Auction 88: 1944 coin (sold as MS65 in the auction; it realized a then-strong $22,000), and the Bass III: 780 coin. I had assumed that the Auction 88 coin had upgraded to MS66 due to its high price realized, but this is clearly not the case. In addition, the Auction 88 lot was very weakly struck on star one, while the Bass coin showed a thin mint-made line (likely a grease stain) right below the third star.

Once again, where is this coin from?

The current answer is “I don’t know.” It has the look of a Clapp coin but it isn’t the coin imaged in the 1982 Eliasberg auction, nor is it either of the top two coins I cited above.

Given that this coin was graded in the early 1990s based on its type of PCGS holder, this coin could not have been in any sale since.

If anyone recognizes this coin and can assist me with determining its pedigree, I would be much obliged. For now, I’ll just emphatically state that its the finest known for the date, and that it joins many other of the finest known New Orleans gold coins in the New England Collection.