Watch List notes:

Guatemala (struck at the Paris mint), gold proof 10 pesos essai, 1894-A, NGC PF 64, finest known, ex-Eliasberg, ex-Flanagan, KM Plate.KM-Pn13. Brightly lustrous and without any marks or wear at all, just traces of a natural stain (on the reverse-side date) that distinctly identifies it as the Eliasberg specimen and almost disappears in the right light at the right angle, with strong die-polish lines all over and crisp, high rims that attest to its total lack of handling, from a tiny mintage of just ten pieces. This coin's long pedigree has inspired a litany of research about the oeuvre of its engraver (Jean LaGrange, whose name appears below the bust) and comparisons with two inferior specimens (the only others confirmed to exist) in the collections of Newcomer and Norweb/Rudman; we prefer instead to focus on its incomparable beauty within the aesthetic constraints of Central American coinage as a whole, its unique Romanesque portrait of Lady Liberty with finely intricate detail in her laurel-wrapped locks of coiled hair reminiscent of the U.S. "Stella" $4 gold pieces of 1879-80. The only proper response to the fact that this design was not adopted is "¡que lastima!"Pedigreed to the Eliasberg collection (ANR auction of April 2005, lot 3062) and to the Col. James W. Flanagan collection (Stack's auction of March 1944, lot 375), also Plate Coin in the Krause-Mishler Standard Catalog reference books.
($15000-30000)