Every San Francisco eagle produced during the 1860′s is rare, both in terms of absolute and condition rarity. Only 6,430 1869-S eagles were made and there are well under 100 known, mostly in the VF-EF range. There are probably not more than a dozen properly graded AU’s known and the single finest I am aware of is Bass IV: 693, graded MS61 by PCGS, which brought $17,250.

This lustrous light reddish-gold example has natural color and would likely grade AU53 were it not for a small reverse depression (mint-made?) to the left of the eagle’s beak. The strike shows typical weakness on the radial lines in the stars but the centers are well defined.

Only two PCGS AU50′s have sold at auction since January 2003, one of which was this coin.

San Francisco gold coinage is becoming more and more popular yet good values–such as this 1869-S eagle–remain available to the savvy collector.

CAC has approved four in this grade with three finer.

Ex Legend 12/14: 322 where it realized $6,169, earlier sold as Lot 6620 in Heritage’s 4/14 auction where it brought $8,225 as a non-CAC NGC AU50.