1797 Small Eagle

The 1797 Small Eagle is the last $10 gold piece ever struck with the perched-eagle reverse that opened the denomination in 1795. Deliveries of this subtype ran from late March into early May 1797, and then the Mint cut the design off entirely. Within the same calendar year the engraver turned to a Heraldic Eagle reverse modeled on the Great Seal, and every $10 struck after that switch carried the new shield-breast eagle. Two issues therefore wear the 1797 date, but only this one closes the original three-year Small Eagle type. The 1797 Small Eagle is both a one-year-only design closer and the final chapter of the country's first gold eagle reverse.

The reverse is the diagnostic anchor. A small eagle stands on a palm branch and lifts a wreath in its beak, with no shield, no arrows, and no banner. Anything 1797-dated showing a shield-breasted eagle is the separate Heraldic issue. The obverse carries 16 stars in an unusual 12-by-4 arrangement, with the leftmost star nearly touching the date, reflecting Tennessee's 1796 admission. Long parallel grooves on either face are adjustment marks, where a Mint worker filed an overweight planchet down to the 17.50 gram standard before striking. They are original to the coin and do not lower an honest grade. Authentication relies on the correct early gold weight, the 33 mm diameter, a clean reeded edge with no seam from a cast copy, and confirmation that the obverse die crack runs diagonally from the rim below the 16th star up toward Liberty's neck. The known examples descend from a single die marriage cataloged as Bass-Dannreuther 1.

Survival across all grades is small, with most references placing fewer than a hundred coins traceable today and a tight handful of mint-state survivors. Circulated examples grade most often in the Very Fine to Extremely Fine range, and meaningful auction appearances are infrequent. Collectors who pursue early federal gold by major design type need this date to close out the Small Eagle reverse, which keeps demand steady against a fixed supply that will never grow. For a fuller treatment of the design and its three-year run, see the Draped Bust Eagle series history.