EXTREMELY RARE EAGLE. ONE OF ONLY THREE KNOWN, AND THE FINEST AVAILABLE TO COLLECTORS

With just 18,000 produced, the 1852-O is among the scarcer No Motto eagles from New Orleans. This is especially the case in properly graded AU55 and AU58 where the current populations are significantly inflated by resubmissions, and choice, original coins likely number around six to eight in both grades combined.

In Uncirculated, this is an epic rarity with exactly three known. These are as follows:

• PCGS MS60: DL Hansen Collection, ex Stack's Bowers 11/2016: 2153 at a record-setting $111,625.

• NGC MS61: New England Collection, ex Heritage 2/2018: 4239 ($84,000).

• PCGS MS60: This coin, ex Stack's Bowers 2024 ANA: 3403 ($66,000; as NGC MS60).

What else is out there?

The Tyrant coin (ex Simpson/Hall collections) is a PCGS AU58, while the 400 Esplanade coin (ex Heritage 2019 ANA: 3901 at $33,600) is a choice PCGS/CAC AU58+. The PCGS/CAC AU55 Hendricks/Fairmont coin (which brought a strong $36,000) was sold in April 2022.

Until it appeared in the above-cited 2024 auction sale, this coin had been off the market for over 25 years when I sold it to a Michigan collector. It crossed from NGC to PCGS, and it is offered here in its current PCGS MS60 holder for the first time.

It has rich yellow-gold color and unmolested frosty luster. Other than the diagnostic weakness seen on the stars on this—and every other example—the overall detail is excellent. There are fewer scuffs than one might expect for the date and grade. Most importantly, this coin has real eye appeal; a concept foreign to all but a few select 1852-O eagles.

This is very likely the only chance you will ever have to own a nice Uncirculated example of this conditionally rare date, as the other two examples are likely off the market indefinitely.

PCGS has graded two in MS60 with zero finer. The PCGS Price Guide assigns an enthusiastic value of $140,000 in MS60.

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