1795 9 Leaves

The 1795 9 Leaves eagle is the rarer of the two reverse varieties produced in the first year of United States ten-dollar gold coinage. Robert Scot's Capped Bust Right obverse, with fifteen stars representing the Union before Tennessee's 1796 admission, was paired with two distinct reverse dies showing different leaf counts on the palm branch beneath the eagle. The 9 Leaves reverse was used briefly and abandoned; for 1796 and 1797 the Mint settled on an eleven-leaf arrangement. Total 1795 production across both varieties was 5,583 pieces, and the 9 Leaves accounts for only a small fraction of that figure. Recent population work by John Dannreuther places the surviving census at roughly twenty to two dozen examples in all grades, ranking the variety R.6 on the Bass-Dannreuther rarity scale.

The diagnostic is straightforward but worth verifying directly: count the leaves on the palm branch the eagle stands on. Nine leaves identify the rare variety, cataloged as BD-3, while thirteen leaves indicate the more common BD-1 and BD-2 die marriages. Beyond the leaf count, authentication relies on weight and surface clues. Genuine pieces conform to the early-gold standard of 17.50 grams of 0.9167-fine alloy, not the 16.718-gram weight of later eagles struck after the 1837 weight reduction. Many survivors show parallel file lines on the obverse or reverse, called adjustment marks, where a Mint clerk filed the planchet down before striking to bring it to legal weight; these are original Mint features and run beneath the design, while post-Mint scratches cut across it. Cast counterfeits typically show a faint seam on the reeded edge and weigh slightly off-standard.

Auction appearances are events rather than routine listings. The Pogue specimen brought just over $1.05 million at Stack's Bowers in September 2015, and the finest-known PCGS MS63+ CAC example realized $2,711,250 at Heritage in 2023, the only CAC-approved 9 Leaves on record. Most census coins fall in VF to EF, with a small handful certified AU and only a few in Mint State. Strike weakness at the central devices and modest planchet adjustment are normal for the variety and are not held against grade if the surfaces are otherwise clean. For broader context, see the Draped Bust Eagle series history.