1932 $10 MS(PCGS#8884)

February 2026 Showcase Auction - The James A. Stack, Sr. Collection Part II

Auctioneer

Stack's Bowers

Lot Number

24050

Grade

MS65

Price

7,800

Lot Description

A delightful Gem Uncirculated Indian eagle. The surfaces are originally and carefully preserved with a full endowment of smooth, billowy satin luster. Sharply struck throughout with lovely color in medium golden-wheat.<p>It is perhaps surprising that the Philadelphia Mint delivered a staggering mintage of 4,463,000 ten-dollar gold eagles during this Depression year. Many remained undistributed in government vaults - Q. David Bowers (<em>A Guide Book of Gold Eagle Coins</em>, 2017) writes, "The 1932 $10 was one of 16 earlier-dated gold coins available in Uncirculated condition for face value (plus mailing charge) from the Treasury Department in the summer of 1932." Most of these coins were eventually melted later in the decade, but enough were released that the 1932 ranks as the most available Indian eagle in today's market. Perhaps a million or two were used in international commerce, and American citizens acquired many others from local banks shortly after the gold recall of 1933, as keepsakes from a bygone era in the production and circulation of the nation's gold coinage. Mint State examples were common in private hands within a year or two of striking, therefore, and these were joined by tens of thousands of additional examples repatriated during the second half of the 20th century. As recently as 2010, in fact, Mike Fuljenz (<em>Indian Gold Coins of the 20th Century</em>) reported that "a stream of 1932 Eagles [sic] are still being found in overseas sources and are being repatriated to the United States." With the typical example in today's market grading no finer than MS-64 due to bag marks and other signs of handling, premium Gems such as the James A. Stack, Sr. specimen are scarce relative to demand from quality-conscious collectors.