Lot 1040
1907 $10 Indian. Wire rim, periods. PCGS graded MS-65. One of just a handful of true gems of this first year and type of issue. Augustus St. Gaudens designed this superb coin, and about 500 were struck. Of these PCGS has awarded the gem grade to just 37, with a scant 11 graded higher. The ever jealous mint engraver Charles Barber hated the thought of a coin coming out of his Philadelphia Mint that he didn't design, so when President Teddy Roosevelt had the premier artist of the time, Augustus St. Gaudens design this and the High Relief double eagle, Barber worked quickly to undermine the beauty of St. Gaudens designs. Soon the relief was flattened, and the later 1907 double eagles and eagles were mere shadows of their former selves.
This is one of the great ones, the way St. Gaudens designed this magnificent coin, with the dies finely executed and the coins all sharply struck. With Barber at the helm, mediocrity soon returned, and these brief fleeting moments are now treasures to those who can appreciate the supreme artistry transferred to the dies for mere coinage during a few months of 1907.
Estimated Value $34,000 - 37,000.
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