Owner Comments:
This 1883-O eagle is very special: it is the rarest New Orleans eagle. It is among the rarest New Orleans gold coins of any denomination. It has the lowest mintage figure (800) of any branch might Liberty Head eagle.
This coin is from the Pinnacle Collection, and is the second finest of which I am aware (PCGS 3/0, NGC 4/1). It is mostly prooflike with attractive natural golden-orange color on the obverse and reverse. There is just the barest hint of friction on the high spots of the obverse while the reverse, on its own, is fully Uncirculated. As I mentioned above, I think this date is extremely undervalued given its context as the rarest Eagle from this mint and it certainly seems insanely underpriced compared to the 1854-O and 1856-O double eagles which aren’t all that much rarer.
From a Doug Winter Blog (8/16/08) on the ten rarest Liberty eagles (any mint):
#7 1883-O: The 1883-O is the rarest eagle produced at the New Orleans mint. In my book “Gold Coins of the New Orleans Mint 1839-1909” I suggested that 35-45 examples are known from the original mintage of just 800 coins (only 41 in the combined PCGS and NGC census). I still agree with this estimate. Since my book was published in 2006, very few 1883-O eagles have become available and the demand for this issue seems to have greatly increased.
Virtually every example that I have seen grades in the EF40 to AU50 range and is characterized by heavily abraded surfaces. Most are Prooflike and have had their luster disturbed by rough handling and/or numismatic abuse.
The finest known example, an NGC MS61PL (earlier graded MS60 by NGC), surfaced in a bid sale conducted by a dealer at the 2008 FUN show. It was purchased by a consortium of dealers and then sold to a private collector for a record price. With the exception of this coin, very few 1883-O eagles have been seen by me in the last three or so years.