A fantastic 1920-S Indian Head gold $10 eagle graded Mint State 64+ by Professional Coin Grading Service and carrying a green Certified Acceptance Corp. sticker sold for $312,000 at Heritage’s Aug. 14 Platinum Night session, leading bidding of The Naples Collection. An expected highlight, a 1907 Indian Head, Rolled Rim $10 eagle graded MS-66 by PCGS with a green CAC sticker went unsold, though it sold for $810,000 at Heritage’s July 2022 Long Beach Expo auction.

The unnamed collector who formed The Naples Collection started collecting alongside his father, starting with Lincoln and Indian Head cents, before pursuing Morgan dollars. He calls his current collection Naples V, with a focus on Indian Head $2.50 quarter eagles, $5 half eagles and $10 gold eagles.

Along with the 1907 Rolled Rim eagle and the 1933 issue, the 1920-S coin is a key issue in the Indian Head gold $10 coin series, with a mintage of just 126,500. Few of these were released by the U.S. Mint, and Uncirculated examples are often found in MS-60 to MS-62 grades. Few have been repatriated from overseas hoards and it seems that the majority of the mintage was melted in the 1930s.

The subject offering is consistent with nearly all examples in showing a weakly defined date at the top portion and with further softness seen at the central obverse. Heritage ranks it as the eighth finest-known.

It previously sold at a 2005 Heritage auction for $201,250, and at Stack’s Bowers Galleries’ August 2013 offering of the Bentley Shores collection, where it realized $199,750, then housed in a Numismatic Guaranty Co. MS-65 holder.

Most 1930-S eagles melted

The 1930-S eagle is another sought-after issue in the Indian Head series, which ran from 1907 to 1933. The San Francisco Mint wouldn’t strike the denomination for the remainder of the decade after striking the 1920-S coins, and the mintage of 96,000 1930-S eagles did not enter circulation.

While some 1930-S pieces were released through the Treasurer’s Office, most were melted into gold bars after the Gold Recall of 1933 and today around 200 examples of the coin are known. The offered one, graded MS-64+ by PCGS with a green CAC sticker, is among the finer survivors, “with sharply detailed design elements and well-preserved orange-gold surfaces that radiate vibrant mint luster from both sides.”

It realized $90,000, improving on the $78,000 that another comparably graded example without a green CAC sticker sold for at an October 2022 Heritage auction.

Two top-graded examples of Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ always-popular design in the offering were both graded MS-66+ by PCGS, with green CAC stickers. A 1914-D Indian Head $10 coin, one of just three graded PCGS MS-66+ with only two finer, sold for $39,600, while a 1910 example in PCGS MS-66+ traded at $31,200. Neither showed any abrasions of note, with the latter catalog entry stating, “Sharp detail spans the central devices and the border stars, leaving the shimmering fields rolling with luminous orange-gold and sun-yellow hues.”

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