1844-O

The 1844-O Liberty Head Eagle is the fourth New Orleans ten-dollar issue and the second to be struck in commercial volume, with a reported mintage of 118,700 placing it inside the small group of pre-1850 No Motto branch eagles to clear six figures. Coming after the 2,500-piece 1841-O, the 27,400-piece 1842-O, and the 175,162-piece 1843-O, the 1844-O sits at the point where New Orleans production for the denomination had stabilized and the series began behaving like a regularly issued coinage rather than an experimental program. Doug Winter and the principal cabinet references treat 1844-O as a single Type 1 issue without recognized die varieties, although NGC's August 2004 partial population report on the SS Republic recovery flagged twenty of the thirty-two 1844-O eagles raised from the wreck as showing a "Doubled O" mintmark; PCGS does not attribute the variety as a separate listing.

Surviving population behavior reflects that working-coin character. Winter places 1844-O within the more attainable band of No Motto New Orleans eagles, with twenty-one CAC-approved survivors making it the fourth most available date in the run, while still ranking as scarce in lower AU and rare above AU55. The SS Republic recovery materially altered the upper-grade picture, supplying nearly all examples now seen in MS60 to MS62 and making 1844-O the only No Motto New Orleans eagle that surfaces in Mint State with any regularity. Authentication should center on mintmark integrity given the documented "Doubled O" hub, with surface continuity around the punch perimeter and font geometry checked against contemporaneous New Orleans dies. Specific gravity verification against the 16.718-gram, 27-millimeter, 90 percent gold standard remains the front-line filter for cast and plated counterfeits.

Market behavior tracks supply more than scarcity. A PCGS VF35 realized $881.25 at Heritage's 2014 Long Beach Signature, and properly original EF examples continue to anchor the entry tier, with PCGS XF40 retail typically running near $2,900. The Mint State band, while still thin, is the most accessible Uncirculated entry point in the No Motto New Orleans eagle series for collectors who place SS Republic provenance on equal footing with un-pedigreed examples. For builders of the branch by date, 1844-O reads as the cleanest demonstration of how shipwreck recovery can reshape supply within the Liberty Head Eagle series history.