First year of gold dollars! Produced to compete with private minters such as Bechtlers.
Opposite version of 1909-S VDB cent (the only date without the designer's initial versus with it; both first year of type). But the S VDB has 484 times the mintage despite costing far more!
Almost all surviving specimens are mint state, no doubt because speculators bought all of them due to their novelty status (first year of gold dollars; only date with high relief; tiny 1,000 mintage; unique star positioning; only date without the "L" designer's initial).
Far too rare to promote and from which to profit, so demand and thus prices remain ridiculously low. Dealers instead push extremely common, extremely profitable modern coins.
Actually a Pattern because of its unique high relief, incredibly tiny mintage (lower than that of many actual patterns), very first gold dollar status, unique star positioning, and unique lack of the designer's initial.
Extremely easy to authenticate due to the uniquely repunched and positioned stars directly below the bust. And the unique reverse die breaks caused by the die shattering from the high relief. And the lack of an "L"!
Neither conserved nor doctored, unlike many No L's in "problem free" PCGS slabs.
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No L not notated by NGC but extremely obvious and easy to authenticate due to the unique repunching and positioning of the stars below the bust and (of course) the lack of an L.