COOL COIN SHOWCASE #1, November 14, 2025
- desertmoonnm
- Nov 21
- 5 min read
Updated: Nov 23
A New Series At Desert Moon Numismatics
Hi Folks,
I am starting this new series that will interchange with the Newsletter. The focus of it will be to highlight a cool coin we are offering and provide some numismatic context in more detail than what is in the listing. So here is the first.
A very challenging and intriguing series to collect are the Liberty Eagles from the New Orleans Mint. They were issued in two time periods. The first period was when there was no “IN GOD WE TRUST” motto above the eagle on the reverse. Minting this new Eagle began at the Philadelphia Mint in 1838. At the New Orleans Mint, Eagles were produced starting 3 years after its opening, from 1841, and then every year through 1860. Then the US Mint at New Orleans was taken over by the Confederates at the start of the Civil War and effectively shut down in 1861. Six of the mintages of the No Motto O-Mint Eagles were relatively large – from 81,780 for the 1846-O, to as much as 571,500 for the 1847-O. The other years the mintages were significantly lower and all the way down in the 2,000s for the 1841-O and 1859-O. So as one can imagine, some of the dates, like the 1847-O, are the most common examples to find today, whereas the lower mintage dates are proportionally difficult.
Eagles were not produced again at the New Orleans Mint until it reopened in 1879. By this time the design changes included the IGWT Motto. Eagles were minted in quantities ranging from 800 to 10,820 from 1879 to 1883. Then after another hiatus, Eagles were minted again for 11 of the 19 years from 1888 and lasted until 1906 with quantities ranging from 17,000 to 112,711 per year. Only 5 years were mintages high enough (≥ about 87,000) such that reasonable quantities of No Motto Eagles are extant today – 1894, 1895, 1903, 1904, and 1906. All other years for these Eagles are less common.
For both the No Motto and With Motto New Orleans Mint series, finding examples that have originality is worth the effort. This stems from decades of ‘coin doctors’ using techniques to ‘improve’ US gold coins including chemical treatments, puttying to hide nicks, tooling, etc. One of the challenges of collecting ‘soft’ US gold metal coin is that the bigger the coin, the more potential for nicks, hence puttying was used to hide these. So the ‘bigger’ Eagles can have more noticeable bag marks and dings from circulation. Suffice to say, to minimize these issues when collecting O-Mint Eagles, in most cases it is best to find examples that have the CAC approval or straight-graded in a CACG holder. This is because CAC Grading applies a very strict evaluation on the issue of originality and thus it is easier for find an example that is CACed/CACG, in order to avoid coins that may be straight graded in other holders that are not CAC, but have issues that would keep from stickering or getting into a CACG straight-graded holder. Also, in my experience CAC is truly super tough on gold coins. Super-duper tough, I mean real tough, just sayin’. I can’t even begin to describe the terrible and human-manipulated examples I have seen in lot viewing over the past 2 decades. So many examples I have looked at and have to shake my head with sadness because they have been so messed with. These examples we avoid like the plague. So we prefer getting CAC examples of gold coins for these reasons.
For both the No Motto and With Motto O-Mint Eagle series, CAC approved examples do turn up. In the No Motto series, the high mintage years have more CACed examples, for instance the 1847-O and 1851-O Eagles have 128 and 147 CAC/CACG examples, respectively. These turn up a least a few times in auctions and dealer websites in any given year. Some are more challenging to find (like the example we present below). For example, the 1841-O has only 11 examples with CAC stickers, none in mint state and only 3 in AU. Likewise for the With Motto series, the CAC/CACG examples are as numerous as 141 for the 1903-O and as little as 6 for the 1883-O. Suffice to say that the higher numbers of CACed dates are easier to find and do pop up.
For more information on O-Mint Eagles, one can go to Doug Winter’s website and read his discussion on collecting these:
Or buy Doug’s hot off the press, 2025 and fifth edition of his New Orleans Gold Book:
We have offered several O-Mint Eagles of both No Motto and With Motto types since we started Desert Moon Numismatics last year. All have been CACed and personally selected for their quality. Here we present our most recent No Motto pick-up:
As the images above show, this is a pretty cool 1855-O Eagle in PCGS AU50/CAC. It is from the Fairmont Hoard of quarter eagle, half eagle, eagle and double eagle coins that have been auctioned off by Stacks-Bowers. Many of these have a particular ‘look’ from long-term storage. This example exemplifies the Fairmont look with a nice ‘skin’ and a distinctive color as shown, that certifies its originality. The dings for this ‘soft’ gold coin are minimal for the grade. Luster is rich when rotating under the light. All in all, a pq example for the grade and fully original. The kind of coin we love to offer.
What also makes this 1855-O Eagle special is its rarity. In Doug’s book on New Orleans Gold, he places it as tied for the 3rd rarest of the O-Mint No Motto Eagles with 100-125 known. In the grades of AU and MS, he also places it as 3rd rarest with 20-25 known. These numbers include those from the Fairmont Hoard where 12 examples made it into graded PCGS holders (6 of these CACed). As Doug points out in his New Orleans Gold book “the 1855-O is a very scarce issue. The great majority of those available are in the VF-EF range. Most of the AU coins which are known as not choice, and this date is very rare in graded AU55 to AU58. Just two are known in Uncirculated, and both grade MS61”.
The CAC population numbers play out to what Doug reports in his book. Nineteen of these are CACed, 3 in VF, 11 in XF, 3 in AU50 including this one, 1 in AU53, and 1 in AU55. None higher. Hence, this example with its lovely originality, color, and skin, is tied for the 3rd highest graded example with a CAC sticker on it. The example in AU55 would cost one at least 2 times what we are asking for this one. So this lovely coin is not only uber rare, but also offers ‘bang for the buck’.
When I saw this coin at a table at ANA in Oklahoma City, I was not really thinking about rarity, however. I instead just saw a cool O-Mint Eagle that had ‘the look’. We offer this amazingly cool coin here for your perusal:
Thanks for reading, and as always, you can inquire about our offerings by emailing us at desertmoonnm@yahoo.com.