1864

The 1864 eagle stands as the rarest Civil War-era ten-dollar gold piece struck at the Philadelphia Mint, and Doug Winter ranks it the second-rarest Philadelphia Liberty eagle of the entire 1838-1907 run, trailing only the 1875. A mintage of just 3,530 business strikes was authorized as Union finances buckled under wartime pressure, and only an estimated 45 to 55 examples are believed to survive across all grades today. That places it firmly in the top tier of the No Motto subtype and explains why the date commands attention every time one surfaces at a major sale.

Authentication should be the first conversation, not the last. Genuine pieces weigh 16.718 grams on a calibrated scale, measure 27 millimeters across, and yield a specific gravity of roughly 17.2 in the standard 90% gold, 10% copper alloy. Cast counterfeits typically betray themselves through soft, granular surfaces, tooled denticles, and weight that reads light by a tenth of a gram or more. Doug Winter notes that survivors are almost universally heavily abraded, with original surfaces a true rarity; he writes that he has "not seen more than a few with choice, original surfaces" and counts fewer than a dozen properly graded About Uncirculated coins. A single Mint State example is recorded, a PCGS MS61 traced to a Goldberg sale at $16,100 (a now-dated benchmark), and any coin offered above XF40 deserves PCGS or NGC encapsulation plus a careful look at the well-documented die markers in the obverse field.

Collectors building a No Motto Liberty eagle date set treat the 1864 as one of the dates that defines completion. Demand is broad: Civil War specialists, gold type collectors chasing rarity, and date-set builders all compete for the same tiny supply, and the date trades far less frequently than its sibling rarities the 1863 and 1865. Most market appearances are problem-free Fine through Extremely Fine pieces; clean, original AU coins are exceptional and priced accordingly. Anyone considering a purchase should study high-resolution images of certified examples and read the Liberty Head Eagle series history.