Just bought this $10 Indian a few minutes ago for my 20th century U.S. gold type collection. 1932 was the last year the U.S. made gold coins in any quantity for general circulation. Gold coins minted in the true final year, 1933, were practically all melted -- so gold coins with that date are a true rarity. A 1933 $10 Indian would cost somwhere between $150,000 and $800,000, depending on the grade. The early 1930's was the sad end to a great era. I think it's interesting that this last gasp of gold coins for circulation were actually released into the teeth of the Great Depression. I always think of gold as a show of wealth, yet millions in the U.S. were destitute. I bought these two $20 gold pieces last month. I need to get the Liberty graded. Making good progress on the set. Just thought I'd share the pictures.
Fantastic coins ! Thank you very much for sharing. -Brian PS: Who photographs your coins? And how does he/she make the reflection of the coin on the black base under the coin?
Just keep studying, working, and saving ... you'll get there! The photographs of the two $20 gold coins I took on my iPhone next to a large window (indirect sunlight) -- these were hand-held photos (coin in left hand, iphone in right hand --- and trying not to shake or drop anything!). The $10 Indian coin is the sellers photo, as that coin is being shipped. The composite images (front, back, & reflection) on the black background, shown above, I do myself using Adobe Photoshop (although any graphics package should work). To do the reflection, you simply flip the coin photo (done with a preset option -- "rotate canvas, flip canvas vertical"), then resize the image in the vertical only to perhaps 1/3 to 1/4 the size (use the option -- "image size but uncheck the constrain proportions box"), then make the flipped & compressed reflection image slightly transparent ("opacity slide bar set to 75%").
That Indian was a very wise purchase. I have two, a 1910-D and a 1913, and while neither is as nice as your 1932 I cherish them both!
So cool that you own two Indians, hiho. The $10 Gold Indian might be my 2nd favorite coin design behind the $20 St. Gaudens -- it's no wonder as they were both actually designed by Augustus Saint-Gaudens -- who I think is the premier coin designer of all time. If memory serves me correctly, the word Indian attached to the $10 gold is a misnomer. It's actually Miss Liberty wearing an Indian Headress. I looked at some MS65 Indians, but they were out of my price range (costing twice as much as the MS64s, over $4,000) -- so I just looked for the best MS64 I could find. It's interesting how you sometimes get these huge price breaks between grades. The MS65 St. Gaudens $20 wasnt that much more than a 64, but the $10 Indian was twice as much going from 64 to 65 grade -- there must be a big break in the populations.
