1862 Proof

Struck in the second year of the Civil War, the 1862 Proof Liberty Head Eagle is among the most elusive ten-dollar gold pieces of the entire Coronet series. The Philadelphia Mint produced an estimated fifty Proof examples for collectors and presentation sets at a moment when gold was being hoarded, eastern banks had suspended specie payments, and the Treasury was substituting paper for coin. Demand for ten-dollar Proofs collapsed under the strain, unsold examples were almost certainly returned to the melting pot, and the survival rate today reflects that culling, roughly twelve to fifteen pieces are accounted for across all grades, making this a Civil War rarity that rarely surfaces outside marquee specialist sales.

Authentic 1862 Proofs show the deep watery mirrors and squared rims that define a true Type 1 No Motto Proof eagle, and Dannreuther catalogs the year as JD-1 from a single die pairing rated High Rarity-7 in Proof. Most certified survivors carry meaningful cameo contrast, with frosted devices set against fields polished to a true black-mirror finish, a separation that high-grade business strikes from this date cannot replicate. Diagnostic confirmation rests on the squared inner rim, full wire-rim definition where the planchet was forced into the collar, and the early die polish lines visible in the obverse field. Weight should hold to the standard 16.718-gram specification, and the heavy reflectivity behind Liberty's portrait is the cleanest tell separating Proof from a high-grade circulation strike of the same date.

Collecting an 1862 Proof eagle is essentially a study in attrition: PCGS and NGC population reports combined show only a small handful of certified survivors, most clustered in the PR62 to PR64 range with a few finer Cameo and Deep Cameo examples reserved for advanced cabinets. The price record set by the Loewinger PR65 Deep Cameo at $152,750 illustrates what happens when one of the finer pieces appears at auction, and intervening sales of mid-grade specimens have routinely cleared the six-figure mark. Anyone targeting this date should expect long waits between offerings and should accept that even a midrange survivor anchors the Civil War portion of any complete Proof eagle cabinet, a context covered more fully in the Liberty Head Eagle series history.