1804 Crosslet 4

The 1804 Crosslet 4 Draped Bust Eagle is the terminal regular issue of the entire Heraldic Eagle ten-dollar series. Recorded mintage stands at 3,757 pieces, struck from a single die pair cataloged as Bass-Dannreuther 1 (BD-1). After this year, eagle production stopped entirely. President Jefferson directed the suspension because newly struck gold was leaving the country almost as fast as it could be coined, the result of a Congressional silver-to-gold ratio that overvalued silver and pushed gold abroad for melting. The denomination did not return until December 1838, when the Liberty Head design opened a new chapter. The "Crosslet 4" refers to the small horizontal serif on the right side of the 4 in the date, the diagnostic that separates this original circulation strike from the famous 1834-35 Plain 4 proof restrikes made for diplomatic presentation sets.

Attribution begins with that 4. A clean serif extending right from the upright marks the Crosslet variety; a 4 with no serif identifies the Plain 4, a separate proof issue with only a handful known and its own catalog page. Once the date reads correctly, run the standard early-gold checks. Weight should sit at 17.50 grams and specific gravity near 17.16, reflecting the 0.9167 fineness used on federal gold before the 1834 weight reduction. Light parallel grooves on the surfaces are adjustment marks, made when mint workers filed overweight planchets down to standard before striking. These are original Mint features and remain fully collectible. The reeded edge should be even and sharp; cast counterfeits often betray a soft seam or mushy reeding, and the wrong density on a careful weight test ends the question quickly.

John Dannreuther estimates roughly 90 examples survive across all grades, placing the date among the rarer issues in early federal gold and notably scarcer than 1799, 1801, or 1803. Most pieces grade VF through AU, with Mint State examples genuinely scarce. A PCGS MS63+ brought $216,000 at Heritage in July 2022, and AU55 examples have sold in the $80,000 range. Circulated coins in F and VF remain the realistic entry point. For more on Robert Scot's design, the Heraldic Eagle reverse, and the production gap that closed the early eagle chapter, see the Draped Bust Eagle series history.