The most important coin I bought a the recent FUN show was a 1907 Wire Edge $10 gold piece. This is the last minor gold type coin that I will be able to buy. The story of this piece, which was the first of the $10 Indian gold pieces, is interesting. About half way through 1907, the St. Gudens studio in Cornish, New Hampshire, produced a pair of plaster models for the $10 Indian gold piece. The Philadelphia Mint produced a set of dies and struck 500 examples of the new design. This initial effort at the design had many problems. First, and foremost coin did not have a rim which would protect the design while it was in circulation. The rim also made it easier to count and stack the coins which was an essential need for gold pieces during this period. Second, the design features were not sharp and well defined. This left the design open to counerfeiting. Finally the fields had many tiny die polish marks which gave the coin a sandy surface as noted above. When viewing this coin in person, it has nice hazy luster. I am still working on that. Finally, the “wire rim” around outside of the coin was a concern. If it were worn or knocked off the coin, the piece would be underweight. This was a huge concern with gold coins during this period. An underweight gold coin would not be honored at its full face value. Despite the issues, the mint issued the coin … to members of the government and favored coin dealers. The mint produced an addition 42 pieces for a total initial mintage of 542. Seventy pieces were ultimately melted, leaving a net mintage of 472. Most of the survivors are Mint State. PCGS graded this piece MS-65.
Yeah, if you want to go much beyond this one, I'm guessing it's less "sell a spare house to free up the cash" and more "auction off a couple of office buildings"...
Indians are really cool picked this one up a couple of years ago and remains one of my favorites in my growing collection.
