1839 Head of '38 $10.00 NGC EF45 CAC

After a 34 year hiatus, the ten dollar gold denomination was resurrected in 1838. In the first two years of the new Liberty Head design, the portrait featured the first incarnation of the portrait with the coronet tip close to the outer edge of the sixth star and a noticeably curved edge to the neck of Liberty. This designed changed in the later part of 1839 but not before 25,801 examples of this variety were coined. The 1839 Head of 1838 is only a marginally scarce coin until you gert to the AU55/58 range but it is in constant demand as a type issue. It remains very affordable in the lower to middle grades and this Choice EF example, with a CAC sticker, has pleasing deep, even green-gold color with some contrasting reddish hues at the reverse periphery. This is exactly what an EF45 should look like with minimal luster but good details and very choice surfaces without a single detracting mark of note. In the recent Stack's Bowers sale, a more lustrous but less original example graded AU53 by PCGS brought double the amount of this coin, making the present example a great value for the collector who likes gold coins from the highly interesting era (1834-1846) that saw so much experimentation with types and designs of U.S. issues.