1911-S $10 (Regular Strike)

David Akers (1975/88): Most known Mint State 1911-S eagles come from one small hoard that was uncovered in Europe in the late 1970s. The coins from the hoard are generally quite choice and have a similar overall appearance. The typical specimen is fully struck with a sharp, partial wire edge on the obverse. The color is a light to medium orange gold, often with iridescent greenish gold highlights. The surfaces are very finely granular and are basically frosty altgough a few specimens have definite satiny tendencies. Lustre is, without exception, very good to excellent. Most specimens have a semicircular "roughness" in the field to the left of the date, sometimes actually affecting the date. Some examples also have rather prominent "lintmarks" usually in the left obverse field.

Until the discovery of the aforementioned hoard, which amounted to approximately 40 to 50 pieces, the 1911-S was virtually impossible to find in Mint State. The relatively few Uncirculated examples around were nearly all in the MS-60 to 62 range and a 1911-S in MS-63 or better condition was a major rarity. That, of course, is not the case today, since most of the coins in the hoard were MS-63 or better and some were solid gems. By today's very strict grading standards, however, I doubt if any would grade better than MS-65, and I also do not know of any in the "superb" MS-67 category from any earlier source.