Indian Head Eagle

The Indian Head Eagle was a $10 gold coin minted by the U.S. Mint from 1907 to 1916 and intermittently until 1933, when Franklin Roosevelt’s Executive Order No. 6260 ended all gold coin production. This short-lived series includes many rare dates, and proofs from any year are exceptionally scarce, rarely appearing on the market.

Indian Head Eagle Coin Highlights

• Composition: .48375 troy ounces of gold (90% purity) and 10% copper alloy
• Weight: 16.718 grams
• Diameter: 26.92 mm
• Designer: Augustus Saint-Gaudens (minted from 1907–1933)

History of the $10 Indian Head Eagle

The Indian Head Eagle was part of President Theodore Roosevelt’s mission to “beautify” American coinage—what he jokingly called his “pet crime.” In 1907, the longstanding Liberty Head design was replaced with a bold new design by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, one of America’s most prominent sculptors.

Roosevelt, dissatisfied with the work of Mint engravers Charles E. Barber and George T. Morgan, had previously commissioned Saint-Gaudens to design an inaugural medal. Pleased with the result, he entrusted Saint-Gaudens with redesigning several U.S. coins.

Saint-Gaudens adapted the figure of Lady Victory from the General Sherman Monument in New York’s Central Park as the model for the Indian Head Eagle. Roosevelt, however, requested changes, replacing her laurel crown with a feathered Indian war bonnet. The reverse design featured a confident eagle perched on an olive branch with the motto “E PLURIBUS UNUM” beside it.

Controversy and Modifications

Roosevelt objected to including “IN GOD WE TRUST” on coinage, considering it sacrilegious. As a result, the motto was omitted from Indian Head Eagles in 1907 and part of 1908. However, Congress intervened, and the motto was restored to all subsequent issues.

The Indian Head Eagle was less challenging to produce than Saint-Gaudens’ Double Eagle but still encountered technical hurdles, causing initial production delays. Several experimental varieties were struck in 1907, including the “wire edge” version, characterized by a sharp rim and punctuation marks before and after “E PLURIBUS UNUM.” Of these, 500 were produced, along with 42 rounded-edge versions.

Under pressure to release the new coins, Chief Engraver Charles Barber modified the design slightly, leading to the first circulation issue of 239,406 coins in 1907.

Minting and Rarity

The Indian Head Eagle was struck annually from 1907 to 1916. However, World War I disrupted production as gold coins were returned from Europe to finance war efforts. Minting resumed briefly in 1920 (San Francisco Mint), 1926 (Philadelphia Mint), and in 1932 and 1933 before gold coinage was permanently halted.

In March 1933, Roosevelt prohibited the release of gold coins, effectively ending the Indian Head Eagle series, which had begun in 1795. Most of the 1933 mintage of 312,500 coins was melted, leaving only 40 known survivors. One of these, graded MS-66, sold in 2004 for $718,750.

Legacy and Appeal

Millions of gold coins were melted following Roosevelt’s gold ban, and many surviving Indian Head Eagles spent decades in Europe before being repatriated after the ban was lifted in 1971. Today, these coins are highly sought after by collectors and investors alike.

The Constitutional Gold Group is proud to offer these remarkable specimens, ideal for those seeking tangible assets with historical and numismatic value.