As with all larger-sized US gold coins struck after 1880, the collector needs to ask “is this date safe from the possibility of a sizable quantity being located overseas?”
It’s pretty obvious that the two rarest No Motto New Orleans eagles in higher grades are the 1841-O and the 1859-O, but there’s a lot of competition for the number three (and four) spots…
With the recent offering of the Harvey Jacobson Collection by Heritage Auctions in their recent February 2020 Long Beach sale, we had the opportunity to purchase numerous important examples.
It is my contention that CAC has now seen enough coins that we can make important observations about how rare (or not rare) a specific issue is in regards to its appearance…
I’d like to propose a set that checks most collectors’ boxes. This set contains larger-sized coins, it is easily completable but can be made challenging, it appeals to collectors with reasonably low budgets, it contains both 19th and 20th century issues and these coins were produced at a popular Southern branch mint.
A total of 23,900 eagles were made at the New Orleans mint in 1849-O. There are an estimated 13-17 known in About Uncirculated, and I doubt if more than two or three of these are what I would define as “choice, original” coins.
