The 1873 and 1875 gold issues from this mint have received considerable fanfare over the years but I think the Philadelphia gold coinage from 1870 is pretty interesting as well. Having recently sold a number of high quality 1870 Philadelphia gold pieces, I thought it would be interesting to present an in-depth study of these, going from the dollar all the way up to the double eagle.   
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At the end of my last blog I said that I’d like to hear from collectors about which coins they believe qualify as undervalued sub-$5,000 U.S. gold coins. Robert Kanterman responded with this thoughtful list and I thought I’d publish it along with my comments (which are in italics at the end of each of his paragraphs).   
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I’m beginning to gain a new-found appreciation for –gasp!– No Motto half eagles and eagles from the Philadelphia mint. Read on for some thoughts about these coins and why I’m beginning to see them in a new light. As I’ve mentioned more than once, No Motto half eagles and eagles from Philadelphia have never ranked high on the list of popular coins in the world of DWN.   
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One of my all-time favorite “sleeper” issues is the 1864 quarter eagle. Although not well-known outside of the specialist community, the 1864 is not only among the rarest Liberty Head quarter eagles of any date, it is also one of the rarer Liberty Head issues of any denomination struck for general circulation.   
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I recently studied an 1841 quarter eagle graded PR53 by PCGS which was offered by Heritage in their February 2007 Long Beach auction. Numismatic tradition states that around 20 1841 quarter eagles were struck, all as Proofs. Numismatic tradition, in this case, is wrong. The 1841 in the Heritage sale was unquestionably produced as a business strike. I’ve seen at least three other examples which I believe were produced for circulation as well.   
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was recently working on a research project involving No Motto Liberty Head eagles and I was amazed at just how rare most of these coins are, especially in higher grades. Even the “common” dates like the 1847, 1849 and 1853 still have relatively low surviving populations in the higher AU grades and in Mint State. But there were a few dates that really stood out. One of my favorite No Motto eagles has always been the 1839 Head of 1840.   
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