When the Coinage Act of 1792 was established by the United States Mint, it included the call to produce many denominations, one of which was gold coins. However, those did not come until three years later at the behest of George Washington. We get to revisit one of those first gold coins today with the help of Whitman Publishing’s 100 Greatest United States Coins. Author Jeff Garrett will guide us through the production of the coin and the rarity it is.
#78 – 1795 “Nine Leaves” Capped Bust Eagle
According to Garrett, our first President of the United States wanted gold coins struck before his presidential term ended. He had been in office since 1789 but had no plans to stay for a third term. Then-Mint Director Henry DeSaussure brought 100 gold eagles to the president designed by Robert Scot.
The coins featured the portrait of Liberty facing right on the obverse, Garrett noting that it was inspired by a Roman onyx cameo. The reverse featured an eagle with a wreath in its beak and palm branches in its talons. This was also said to have been inspired by Roman art. Many of the eagles struck featured palm branches with 13 leaves. There are just a few that have nine leaves. The “Nine Leaves” variety is now considered an extreme rarity. Garrett says that the variety was not really acknowledged until the last few decades when the existence of approximately 20 was found.
Unlike other coins and their stars, the number of leaves does not have a tie to the number of states that were in the Union. It was a happenstance that most of the 1795 eagles had 13 leaves. What makes this even more interesting is that it has been determined that the number of palm leaves was never dependent on a specific design implementation. This was made clear by a 1796-dated gold eagle that featured just 11 leaves. Garrett clarifies that it seems to be dependent only on “the ambition, or laziness, of the engraver.”
