A $2.4 million price for a $10 dollar coin is a new record for the type.
The coin was sold at Heritage Auctions in Dallas on October 2nd.
It was one of just two proofs of the 1907 Rolled Edge Indian Eagle with a satin finish.
The $2.4 million hammer price took the prize for the coin type from the same coin, which had been auctioned (by the same company) in 2011 for $2.1 million.
The coins were struck as part of a planned major overhaul of US coinage by President Theodore Roosevelt.
The designs are by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, one of the most celebrated US coin designers, whose Double Eagle is the most valuable ever US coin, selling for over $18 million in 2021.
Saint-Gaudens died before the redesign was completed. He had a difficult relationship with the US mint, sometimes producing designs that were extremely beautiful, but in a high relief that was hard to stamp in existing machines.
Augustus Saint-Gaudens was personally sought out by the President to work on a set of coins, but his work was so technically demanding that survivals of some types are extremely rare.
In 1907, just 50 of Saint-Gaudens’ $10 coins were struck. Most of the coins were melted down because the coins wouldn’t stack.
This example was first owned by director of the US Mint, Frank A Leach. It’s believed to be an experimental strike to try out a satin finish.
Before the sale, Heritage said: “[This] is a monumental coin that ranks among the most important individual specimens in 20th century American numismatics. All 1907 Rolled Edge Indian eagles are sought-after rarities in the popular series but, with only two examples confirmed, proof specimens are in a class of their own.”
It is now one of the most significant US gold coins, worth around the same as a 1787 Brasher Doubloon that made $2.4 million in 2015, and an 1854 $5 coin that sold in 2021 for $2.4 million.
