Panama Pacific Fifty Dollar Octagonal Gold in MS 65 from PCGS

Ever since Balboa first gazed winning the Pacific Ocean in 1513, Europeans had dreamed and schemed of conduct to relate the Gulf of Mexico with the large ocean to the west. Four hundred living later that daydream was realized with the cavity of the Panama Canal. It took ten being and many millions of dollars to construct the giant curls through Panama’s deadly jungles, but completion of the monumental scheme assured America’s figure as a world weight. It had been evident since the Spanish-American War that suspended a two-ocean armada was logistically overwhelming, and curtly after the conclusion of hostilities, campaign began in earnest to connect the two bushel.

Congress felt the duct was of such importance that in 1915 it appropriated 50 million dollars for an exposition celebrating its completion. San Francisco was elected as the spot of the festivities, bountiful that city an opportunity to cabinet the rebuilding undertaken since the devastating earthquake of 1906. Congress also authorized a cycle of commemorative coins to smudge the induce: a silver half money, gold dough and house eagle, and an extraordinarily impressive brace of $50 gold pieces. One unusual quantity of the legislation provided that of the 3,000 fifty-buck coins authorized, half were to be series and the other half octagonal in influence. These weighty gold coins were modeled after the fifty-dollar gold octagonal “slugs” struck in Gold Rush California by Augustus Humbert and their curved counterparts struck by the Wass-Molitor secure in 1855. Although the coins formed by Humbert at the U.S. Assay agency at San Francisco were officially authorized issues, the Pan-Pac fifties would be the first coins of that denomination issued by a U.S. Mint.

New York dancer Robert Aitken was selected to sketch both the rotund and octagonal fifty-dollar coins. Aitken was an accomplished sculptor, but the Panama-Pacific commemoratives were his first work at coin designs. Critics had a tackle day with his handiwork, ignoring the aesthetic qualities of the point and complaining that “there is nothing American about the coin except the inscription.” On an artistic turn, however, Aitken’s work is a pretty successful challenge to blend classical Greek motifs with modern currency. He worn the same shape for both coins, but somewhat cheap the plan rudiments on the octagonal pieces to fit within the border. His subjects were the Roman divinity Minerva (after the Greek spirit Athena) and an owl, symbols, as he put it, “packed of beauty in themselves,” that would also prompt “the larger import of the Exposition, its influence to the intellect.” Aitken’s benefit to the intellect, however, vital some interpretation, which fortunately was included on the packaging accompanying the five-piece sets consisting of the two fifties, a sector eagle, gold dollar, and silver the dollar.

To the Romans, Minerva was the spirit of wisdom, talent, contemplation, revolving, weaving, agriculture and horticulture, all undoubtedly admirable qualities. Ironically, she was also the goddess of war, albeit representing the more reflective and urbane region of conflict. As the essential draft of the Panama-Pacific $50 pieces, she wears a crested helmet, pushed back to show peaceful intentions—an icon of American sentiment towards europe deeply involved in the butchery of World War I. The meeting appears in Roman numerals—MCMXV—at the top of Minerva’s defense. The whole vital intended is surrounded by a “Morse program” circular border, actually a long and abrupt-beaded motif, also adapted from Classical Greek drawing. Although some critics of the day remarked about the dolphins encircling the border of the octagonal pieces, sarcastically commenting that it seemed as if the vessel was built for their gain, the dolphins pretty suitably denote the uninterrupted waterway formed by the canal. The coins’ reorder depicts an owl floating on a Ponderosa Pine, surrounded by cones. Owls were sacred to Minerva, and the bird is regularly recognized as an image for wisdom as well as for watchfulness, alluding to America’s must for vigilance on the eve of its door into the European war. The beaded border is frequent again on the setback, separating the main outline from the statutory legends that surround the outside each side: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and FIFTY DOLLARS on the face, PANAMA-PACIFIC EXPOSITION and SAN FRANCISCO on the rearrange. The motto IN GOD WE TRUST appears above Minerva’s start, while E PLURIBUS UNUM is to the right of the owl. Aitken’s initials are tucked away on the reverse in the grassland above the R in FRANCISCO, while the S mintmark is located between the lowest right pinecone and the beaded inner border.

Because of the coins’ large array, an exclusive 14-ton hydraulic depress used for salient medals was sent from Philadelphia. Although officials considered salient the coins on the fairgrounds, the absolute resolve kept production in the San Francisco Mint. The first coins were struck on June 15, 1915, and an entirety of 1,509 octagonal and 1,510 cycle the end formed fifties of the summer. The odd 19 pieces that exceeded the authorized mintage were distant for evaluate. The first 100 coins struck were distributed to numerous dignitaries and Mint employees. Despite the popularity of the coins’ large dimension and appealing drawing, only 645 of the octagonals and 483 of the rounds were sold. The remaining pieces were melted in November, 1916.

Intimately associated with the promotion and distribution of the Pan-Pac fifties, as well as some other commemorative issues from the early 20th century, was Farran Zerbe. Zerbe’s numismatic reputation and following whack was such that he was sited in accuse of the Exposition’s Coin and Medal Department, which he incorporated into his own wandering exhibit called “Money of the World.” As a brisk promoter of numismatics for some decades, Zerbe did more to popularize coin collecting in this country than any other individual, with the probable omission of B. Max Mehl. Zerbe marketed the five Pan-Pac commemorative issues in assorted combinations: distinct coins, short sets of three, detailed sets of five and amplify sets of ten coins that showed both sides of each coin. He vacant the coins to collectors through the transmit, to the universal free at the adequate and in exclusive mailings to bankers. Although his marketing methods were valiant, decision buyers at $100 for a $50 gold coin when wages were low, interest in numismatics was insignificant, and political and financial uncertainty high, was a grim task at best.

The artistic beauty, magnitude, and scarcity of the Pan-Pac fifties place them among the few commemorative issues that are widely recognized and wanted by non-specialists. The net mintage figures mirror both their absolute and relative rarity: the decrease-mintage series class is the scarcer of the two. Many existing Pan-Pac fifties bear from minor treatment friction on the cheek and helmet of Minerva and on the high portion of the owl’s breast. Often the corners of the octagonal pieces will show rim bumps and nicks. Most examples will stretch from AU-55 to MS-63: gem examples are quite erratic and seldom existing for auction. Almost as coveted as the coins themselves are the earliest-number holders: The gear made for single $50 pieces have sold in the $400-$800 range, while the hammered frames for five-piece sets convey some thousand dollars each. The really bloody lookalike-set, framed pocket is even dearer: one example sold several time ago at auction brought an astounding $18,000!

SPECIFICATIONS:

Diameter: 1.74 inches

Weight: 83.55 grams

Composition: .900 gold.100 copper

Edge: Reeded

Net Weight: 2.41757 ounces authentic gold

Photo Copyright Anaconda Coins.

American Buffalo Commemorative Coin

On September 28, 1999 thousands of Americans, with many American Indians, came from all over the Nation to Washington, DC, to witness the ground breaking ceremony for the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, which schedule to open in the year 2004.

Soon a New Landmark

Veiled by fences that surround the only enduring chief shop position on the great National Mall, facing the Capitol and adjacent to the Air & Space Museum, determined bulldozers nature the land to groom it for one last magnificent milestone-The Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI).

Ten being in planning and development, this 260,000-plaza-base structure will be the crown jewel in a Museum that already includes an excellent eternal exhibition ability in New York City and an imperial-of-the-art collections examine and analysis focus in Suitland, Maryland. In 2004, when this state architectural treasure opens its doors, it will at last be able to allocate with millions of visitors a collection of 800,000 Native things across 10,000 days, unquestionably the supreme such collection ever assembled.

Perhaps most significantly, this closing Mall shop-set as it is in the very affection of the land's capitol-represents a nearly cultural integrity. It signals a profound and long-overdue reconciliation between those whose ancestors came to these coast and those who were already here. Since Indian people have predominantly intended this new Museum, it will enable the world to explore the beyond, give, and upcoming through the eyes of Native people.

About the Coins

This coin is being issued by the Secretary of the Treasury in commemoration of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. The construct of this silver money is based on the original 5-cent Buffalo nickel as planned by James Earle Fraser and minted from 1913 through 1938.

A portion of the proceeds from the deal of each coin is authorized to verify the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian to commemorating the National Museum of the American Indian; and supplementing the gift and educational outreach burial of the Museum of the American Indian.

Coin Information Provided Courtesy The United States Mint.

Seated Liberty n With Motto Silver Dollars 1866-1873 Coin

As war clouds gathered and the residents raced impulsive near civil war, known sentiment became increasingly philosophical. In 1861, reflecting this communal mood, Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase detained leading a suggestion from a Pennsylvania minister that the Mint ought to incorporate recognition of the deity on our coins. In a letter to James Pollock, Director of the Mint, Chase wrote: "The hope of our people in God should be stated on our general coins. You will produce a crest to be ready lacking unnecessary falter with a motto expressing in the fewest and tersest terms promising this free recognition."

Almost immediately, Pollock struck a few patterns and forwarded them to Chase. In his accompanying letter, Pollock asserted that the first suggestion for this spiritual motto, "Our Trust is in God," had too many characters to fit comfortably. The Mint Director recommended "God Our Trust" since he felt it accepted the same idea and was more concise. He also chosen the motto to be placed on the back above the eagle, within a scroll or ribbon machine as artistic scenery.

Pattern half dollars and eagles square 1861 and 1862 have the lexis GOD OUR TRUST. From 1863 through 1865, additional patterns were made with GOD OUR TRUST, GOD AND OUR COUNTRY, and IN GOD WE TRUST.

It was IN GOD WE TRUST that Secretary Chase finally usual in 1864. It first appeared on the two-cent part in that year and then later the Shield nickel in 1866. Patterns dated 1865 with IN GOD WE TRUST were made of the twofold eagle, eagle, the eagle and the silver house, half buck and buck. Ultimately, the Mint Act of March 3, 1865 provided the authorization for use of the motto on the usual silver and gold issues.

The Seated Liberty bucked of 1866, alike to earlier issues except for the addition of the motto, was based on the creative devise by Christian Gobrecht, the past Chief Engraver of the Mint. First used on usual announce coins with the 1837 dime, it was practical to the buck in 1840.

The intend depicts Liberty seated on a boulder. She is property a post in her left hand topped with a liberty cap. With her right hand she supports the shelter of the union adorned with the word LIBERTY. Thirteen stars surround the cost. The converse skin an eagle with outstretched wings and the Union armor on its breast. The eagle is covetous an olive stem and three arrows. The legend UNITED STATES OF AMERICA appears in a semicircle around the eagle, and the denomination ONE DOL. Appears below. If a particular coin has a mintmark, it is soon under the eagle.

The conceive has athletic symbolism. With the use of the liberty cap, it declares autonomy. The union shielded is symbolic of the unity of the homeland. In the throes of the nastiest conflagration this country ever experienced, it was physical for the people of the mid-19th century to point to the deity for help and guidance. Placing a religious sentiment on something as intimate as a coin was the equivalent of a national prayer.

The motto has become very much a part of the American mind. This was evident when the double eagle and eagle were issued without the motto in 1907. It caused a burning public controversy, and Congress planned the motto restored in 1908.

Although "With Motto" buck mintages were small, the coins were well used by the public. The accounts for the small number of uncirculated pieces that live. Only about 3.6 million pieces were minted for circulation. The womanhood was made at the Philadelphia Mint with only two domain mints producing the With Motto variety.

Of the Carson City Mint issues of 1870, '71, '72 and '73, the 1870-CC is the easiest to locate. There are also three San Francisco issues. The 1870-S is a foremost scarcity, and the 1873-S, with a reported mintage of 700, is strange in any collection. That foliage the 1872-S as the only collectable With Motto buck from that mint. The Philadelphia issues of 1871 and 1872 are the dates most regularly seen and are popularly composed as mode examples.

There are 15 customary and eight resistant issues of the Seated Liberty With Motto Dollar. An absolute of 6,060 proofs were coined, and these hang over each meeting from 1866 through 1873.

When grading mint pomp pieces, footnote that this coin regularly comes with some parts of the outline softly struck and may have many "bag" letters and abrasions. Check the high points of Liberty's right leg and breast and the pelt above her eye for signs of erode. Seating Liberty dollars may be seen with a great glaze that can array from lightly spotty to black. Heavily toned specimens should be warily evaluated to affect whether evidence of circulation is buried underneath.

Numismatists usually collect this coin as a "form," because it is obstinate to find affordable examples of many dates in this chain. A crucial collection would have an example of the No Motto and With Motto types. One could also enter an exclusive, but obtainable, Gobrecht sample or circulation flow of 1836-1839. Nevertheless no subject which type, grade or date you own, any Seated Liberty cash is a numismatic treasure.

In February, 1873 Congress passed the Coinage Act later known as "The Crime of '73," which effectively demonetized silver and put the populace on a gold ensign. It would fuel intense meditate for the next district century. While the Act created a new trade dough for use in import with the Far East, it abolished the even issue silver dollar, along with the two-cent example, the silver trime and the the dime. The standard silvered dollar would not gain awaiting 1878, when it reappeared with a new design named for its initiator, Chief Engraver George T. Morgan.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Diameter: 38.1 millimeters Weight: 26.73 grams Composition: .900 silver.100 copper Edge: Reeded Net Weight: .77344 oz pure silver

BIBLIOGRAPHY: American Numismatic Association, Selections from The Numismatist: United States Paper Money, Tokens, Medals and Miscellaneous, Whitman Publishing Company, Racine, WI, 1960. Bowers, Q. David, Silver Dollars & Trade Dollars of the United States, A Complete Encyclopedia, Bowers and Merena, Wolfeboro, NH, 1993. Judd, J. Hewitt M.D., United States Pattern, Experimental and Trial Pieces, 7th Edition, A. Kosoff, Western Publishing Co., Racine, WI, 1982. White, Weimar W. The Liberty Seated Dollar 1840-1873, Sanford J. Durst, Long Island City, 1985. Yeoman, R.S., A Guide Book of United States Coins, 47th Edition, Western Publishing Co., Racine, WI, 1993.

Coin Information Provided Courtesy NGC.

Draped Bust n Small Eagle Silver Dollars 1795-1798 Coin Guide

A precocious country during its shaping being, the United States grew swiftly in volume and eminence throughout its first the century as an independent populace. It didn't access adulthood almost as cleansing, however, as the image of Miss Liberty on U. S. Silver change.

When Liberty first appeared on the land's silver coins in 1794 she was childish and chirpy, with her curls flowing freely behind her. Focusing on that mark, collectors submit to these coins as the Flowing Hair class. Nevertheless it didn't take long for this ingenious- looking maiden to make the bursting flower of adulthood: The very next year a new sketch showed her, in the language of currency critic Cornelius Vermeule, as "a buxom Roman matron" having long, elegant fleece neatly together back with a ribbon and a bow and ample cleavage obvious above a fold of drapery.

This rotund-figured portrayal has come to be known as the Draped Bust invent, and it holds a significant distinction: It appears on the facade of the 1804 silver dough, one of the most notorious and most important U.S. coin rarities.

For a time, the Draped Bust likeness graced all five silver coins then being issued: the dough, half cash, quarter, dime and the dime. The money got the spring on all the others, however, receiving this fabricate partway through production in 1795. It didn't make its debut on the other four coins pending 1796.

Selection of the cash as the new originate's first cabinet underscored the dominance of that coin. The dough was the cornerstone of the financial routine devised by the Founding Fathers, and the one-money coin was not only the prime silver number but, in the survey of officials overseeing the Mint, the most prestigious as well as most important. They had made that earn in 1794 when they chose to have dollars struck before something also at the outset of silver penny, only then giving the go-onward for the minor silver pieces.

Replacement of the midstream-lived Flowing Hair project coincided with a change in leadership at the Mint. David Rittenhouse resigned as the Mint's first director at the end of June 1795, and his successor, Henry William DeSaussure, set out at once to recover the designs of all the denominations, particularly those struck in silver.

Possibly at the urging of President George Washington, DeSaussure engaged portraitist Gilbert Stuart to devise a new target for the silver coins. Stuart organized a diagram of the Draped Bust celebrity, reportedly basing the likeness on Philadelphia socialite Ann Willing Bingham, said to be the most stunning lady of her time. This sketch was translated to plaster by dancer John Eckstein of Providence, Rhode Island, and mint executed the dies Chief Engraver Robert Scot.

Though the Flowing Hair picture of Liberty was retired, the Mint kept the back essentially the same. It skinned a small, naturalistic eagle encircled by a wreath, with UNITED STATES OF AMERICA adorned around the border. On the Draped Bust penny, this "Small Eagle" reversal does bare fine refinements: The eagle seems more lissom, for example, and it's balanced ahead a cloud instead of an astound (as had been the instance on the Flowing Hair money). In addition, the wreath has been adapted: The before laurel brushwood have given way to kindling of palm and emerald. LIBERTY and the court are the only inscriptions on the face. Lettering on the perimeter proclaims the receipt of cost: HUNDRED CENTS ONE DOLLAR OR UNIT, with decorations separating the words.

The intact first-year production of Draped Bust silver dollars took place in the last two weeks of October, 1795 and totaled a modest 42,738 pieces. That's barely one-fourth the mintage of 1795 Flowing Hair dollars; some 160,000 of those had been struck formerly. Nonetheless, both types historically have commanded comparable premiums. The Flowing Hair money profited from it's varied grab as a mode coin: That sequence was made for only two being, and the 1794 is a chief find, so the 1795 is the only realistic decision for most buyers.

The Draped Bust/Small Eagle dough didn't last much longer. It remained in production for only four being, from 1795 to 1798, before the small eagle was replaced by a large, heraldic eagle. The Draped Bust studied retained its blackhead on the facade awaiting production of dollars was perched in 1804 because of onerous melting. When dollar coinage resumed in 1836, the facade weary a new Seated Liberty portrait.

Only about 450,000 Draped Bust/Small Eagle dollars were issued in the four living mutual, virtually three fourths of them in 1798. Noting scholar Walter Breen estimated that just 3 percent survive. The low crux came in 1797, when a meager 7,776 were bent. The rarest array is the 1797 dollar with 9 stars to Liberty's left, 7 to her right and small script in the quash legend. The low production facts are understandable, given the truth that during the 1790s a dollar represented a full day's pay for some Americans-and a living wage, at that.

Although the string is small, Draped Bust/Small Eagle dollars come in more than a dozen foremost varieties. Some of these distinctions are based on the dimension of the date and the inscriptions. Most of the varieties, however, are fixed to the number of stars on the frontage and the way they are agreed. There were 15 stars in the first two years, representing the number of states in the Union at the time. With Tennessee's admission, the number rose to 16 in 1797. Then, in 1798, it dropped back to 15 (apparently because old dies were being used) before finish up at 13 for the 13 primary colonies.

The collecting of this string by varieties took a major leap forward with the publication in 1950 of a citation book by Milford H. Bolender. Using his own specialized collection of these coins as a foundation, Bolender described and illustrated each category known to him. After vacant through some editions, his book was extensively revised by Jules Reiver in 1998. Another note by Q. David Bowers, with the assistance of Mark Borckardt, was published in 1993, correcting and updating the Bolender book and assigning a new numbering structure. Thus, the varieties of these dollars are identified by both Bolender (B) figures or Bowers/ Borckardt (BB) facts.

Dollars of this capture are scarce and vastly collectible even in lesser circulated grades and are atypical in mint proviso. Points to buttress for grind are the hair above Liberty's temple and the emblem of the eagle's breast.

Although the series is abruptly, it is commonly serene by brand only because each component is so scarce. Proofs of these coins weren't struck, but a few presentation pieces spectacle prooflike surfaces.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Diameter: 39-40 millimeters Weight: 26.96 grams Composition: .8924 silver.1076 copper Edge: Lettered Net Weight: .77344 ounce downright silver

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Bowers, Q. David, Silver Dollars & Trade Dollars of the United States, A Complete Encyclopedia, Bowers & Merena, Wolfeboro, NH, 1993. Breen, Walter, Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins, F.C.I. Press/Doubleday, New York, 1988. Reiver, Jules, The United States Early Silver Dollars 1794 to 1804, Krause Publications, Iola, WI, 1998. Taxay, Don, The U.S. Mint and Coinage, Arco Publishing Co. Inc., New York, 1966. Yeoman, R.S., A Guide Book of United States Coins, 47th Edition, Western Publishing Co., Racine, WI, 1993.

Coin Information Provided Courtesy NGC.

Peace Silver Dollars 1921-1935 Coin

The "war to end all wars" destroy far abrupt of that good aspiration. What chronicle now terms World War I, which ravished Europe from 1914 to 1918, did stir worldwide yearning, however, for harmony. One directly product of that zealous dream was the League of Nations. Trice, fewer ambitious but regularly sincere, was the Peace dough. America shunned the League, but favorably embraced the coin.

Following the war, there was widespread sentiment for issuance of a coin that would celebrate and commemorate the restoration of peace. The American Numismatic Association played a key function in fostering this offer. At the same time, the U. S. Mint found itself facing the ought to fright producing millions of silver dollars. That poverty grew out of the Pittman Act, a law enacted in 1918 at the urging of-and plainly benefiting-silver-mining happiness. Under this calculate, the government was empowered to melt as many as 350 million silver dollars, move the silver into gold and then moreover advertise the metal or use it to products subsidiary silver penny. It also was essential to beat replacement dollars for all that were melted.

Aside from serving silver producers, the law also aided Great Britain, a wartime ally at the time. During economic living 1918 and 1919, the U. S. Government melted a whole of more than 270 million silver dollars, and most of these-259,121,554-finished up being sold in bullion form to the British, who desired the silver to covenant with an economic calamity in India. During that same interlude, the United States melted 11,111,168 silver dollars to attain new raw relevant for subsidiary coins of its own.

The coins that were melted under the language of the Pittman Act represented virtually half the entire production of stock silver dollars (as distinguished from Trade dollars) made by the U. S. Mint up to that court. Even so, the pasting was no particular blow to the country's export. Silver dollars were since only partial use, and lasting inventories were more than sufficient to function commercial wishes. Demand for the coins was so token, in verity, that nothing had been shaped for more than a dozen time-since 1904.

Against this scene, the Mint had no logic to smack new silver dollars as replacements for the ones that had been melted-but the Pittman Act necessary it to do so. Accordingly, in 1921, after the price of silver had fallen from postwar highs, it ongoing cranking out the long-perched Morgan silver dollars once again. It did so, in truth, in profile figures: During that sole year, the various mints fashioned a whole of more than 86 million examples-simply the peak one-year character in the sequence.

By interesting coincidence, Morgan money production resumed on the very same day-May 9, 1921-that legislation was introduced in Congress work for the issuance of a new silver money marking the postwar peace. As described by its sponsors in a general resolution, the new coin would generate "an appropriate strategy commemorative of the termination of the war between the Imperial German Government and the Government of the people of the United States."

Congress adjourned lacking taking action on the compute. It twisted out, however, that congressional authorization wasn't genuinely needed, since the Morgan buck-having been shaped for more than the official least of 25 days-was topic to replacement without detailed legislative penalize.

To find designs for the coin, the national Commission of Fine Arts agreed a competition involving a small group of the people's finest medalists. The nine invitees included such imminent artists as Victor D. Brenner, Adolph A. Weinman and Hermon A. MacNeil, all whom had intended earlier U. S. Coins. Nevertheless the winner bowed out to be an infantile Italian immigrant named Anthony de Francisci, whose keenly chiseled portrait of Liberty was modeled after his infantile wife Teresa. The back of the coin shows an eagle in lounge atop a cliff, peering regarding the sun through a string of heat, with the word PEACE superimposed on the swing. No other U. S. Coin shaped for circulation has ever borne that motto.

Production of 1921 Peace dollars didn't get under way pending the decisive week of December, and just over a million examples were fashioned. It rapidly became obvious that the coin's relief was too high, making it hard to arrange and causing undue die fissure. The Mint corrected the crisis in 1922 by tumbling the relief-but in the process, it fairly lowered the coin's aesthetic request, as well.

By 1928, the Mint had produced enough Peace dollars to gratify the Pittman Act's requirements. It so halted production. The lid on silver dollars was clamped down even tighter with the arrival of the Depression the next year. The target returned for a two-year curtain call in 1934, mostly because more cartwheels were needed as grant for silver certificates. The 1934-S proved to be one of the key coins in the sequence, along with the 1921 and the 1928. The mintmark is below the word ONE on the change. A handful of matte proofs exist, but only for 1921 and 1922.

Silver dollars-of both designs-were basically unseen by collectors pending the early 1960s, when silver certificate redemptions and the exposure surrounding the Treasury's sales of $1,000 bags of dollars to all comers shaped new relevance in the large silver coins. Ironically, Peace dollars had been swiftly offered at banks for decades, and following Treasury Department policy, were paid out before Morgan dollars were disbursed. Nevertheless few collectors were interested in completing sets of these relatively dear coins, judgment it more handy to assemble collections of the lesser denominations: A silver dollar represented a considerable sum in the 1930s and '40s-enough to buy five dozen eggs or ten boxes of Wheaties. It wasn't until the very early 1960s, when the Treasury had almost emptied its vaults of Peace dollars, that the more required after Morgans started to pour forwards, fueling collector enthusiasm for both sequence in the process.

The entire run of Peace dollars consists of just 24 coins, none of them great rarities. Thus, many collectors strive for finished year-and-mint sets. Pristine, high-grade pieces are elusive, however; weak strikes were common, and the broad, open plan made the coins vulnerable to dress and dent. Points to restrain for clothing are Liberty's face, neckline and the hair over her ear and above her temple. On the reorder, scuff will first show on the eagle's wing, leg and skull.

The Peace dollar's early demise was ominously symbolic. Four years later, in 1939, World War II erupted in Europe. The plan came very close to reappear once more in 1964, when Congress authorized production of 45 million new silver dollars, apparently in a strength to fulfil the wants of Nevada gambling casinos. With the slighter silver coins rapidly disappearing from circulation, this was viewed as a gift to exclusive good. After the Denver Mint produced 316,076 Peace dollars (square 1964) in May of 1965, order rescinded the authorization of President Johnson. Although all pieces were to be recalled and melted, rumors persist of several coins extant.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Diameter: 38.1 millimeters Weight: 26.73 grams Composition: .900 silver.100 copper Edge: Reeded Net Weight: .77344 little genuine silver

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Bowers, Q. David, Silver Dollars & Trade Dollars of the United States, A Complete Encyclopedia, Bowers and Merena, Wolfeboro, NH, 1993. Breen, Walter, Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins, F.C.I. Press/Doubleday, New York, 1988. Miller, Wayne, The Morgan and Peace Dollar Textbook, Adam Smith Publishing Co., Metairie, LA, 1982. Taxay, Don, The U.S. Mint and Coinage, Arco Publishing Co. Inc., New York, 1966. Yeoman, R.S., A Guide Book of United States Coins, 47th Edition, Western Publishing Co., Racine, WI, 1993.

Coin Information Provided Courtesy NGC.

Trade Dollar 1875

Federal officials faced a dilemma in the being after the Civil War. The Comstock Lode and other Western mines were producing large quantities of silver, but the government could use only limited amounts of it in currency. This seems puzzling in retrospect, for silver coins were infrequent in circulation (a lingering legacy of wartime billboard), and Americans presumably would have welcomed main infusions of silver coins. Nevertheless Mint officials feared that new silver coins would be subjected to notice as well, since the marketplace was sopping with paper money, with fractional currency natural of wartime basic. People would have been only too glad to replace these notes, which brought minus than plump face help, for precious-metal currency.

For a time, the miners found outlets for their silver, regularly in change form, in exotic markets. Canada, Latin America and Europe all absorbed significant quantities during the 1860s. Nevertheless then, for many reasons these markets became glutted. In Europe, for example, Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck established a gold model for Germany after unifying the country in 1871 and speedily dumped gigantic amounts of silver on the international promote.

For the miners and their potent allies in Washington these developments were doubly disturbing: Not only was it hard to sell their silver, but the promote treasure was steadily declining. Initially, change did suggest one outflow valve: Under a long- ranking law, silver could be deposited with the Mint for conversion into silver coins, for which it could then be exchanged. Having no other equipped conduit, miners took lead of this one. Invariably, they chose silver dollars, the one denomination that hadn't been changed when silver coins were condensed in mass (and precious-metal subject) in 1853. As a manage significance, silver money mintages soared above one million in both 1871 and 1872.

Nevertheless with the Coinage Act of 1873, Congress stopped this loophole by suspending expand production of silver dollars. And that's where the trade buck came in: Flexing their muscle, the mining benefit won liking for this new silver coin-one that would, in scheme at slightest, not only offer an opening for the metal, but also open a full new souk for it in a corner that was already receiving Congressional awareness.

The market in doubt was Asia, particularly China. Some U.S. silver had found its way to that territory previously, but now a plump-fledged violent was planned. The Chinese had shown an absolute preference for silver coins, and up to then the volume of American trade with China had been carried out with Spanish and Mexican dollars. The trade dough's architects set out to replace those rivals by bountiful the new coin a senior silver content. They even had it decorated on the coin: "420 GRAINS, 900 FINE."

At first glance, the trade dough looks much like a recurring silver money. It's the same diameter and about the same mass as its predecessor, the Seated Liberty dough, and its portraiture is similar: a seated female chart representing Liberty on the frontage and a naturalistic eagle on the reversal-designs organized by Mint Chief Engraver William Barber.

In compare to the new trade dough, the uniform U.S. silver dough weighed just 412.5 grains, and the Mexican buck weighed only 416. Nevertheless the architects had miscalculated; still it weighed vaguely less, the Mexican coin had a senior sheerness and therefore enclosed somewhat more innocent silver. The sharp Chinese recognized this and, in many provinces, gave the U.S. coin sharply shrift, favoring the Mexican coin.

That's not to say the trade buck wasn't used. On the opposing, over 27 million went overseas and found their way into Asian retail, many later being sent onto India in trade for opium. Numerous pieces show chop signs-distinctive Chinese symbols-located on them by merchants to attest to their authenticity. Nevertheless treatment of the coins never approached Americans' expectations.

The trade money's prevalent problems occurred not in China but at home. In a last-detailed contract, Congress had made the coin an official tender for domestic payments up to five dollars. In 1876, millions were dumped into circulation in the United States when silver prices plummeted, making them worth substantially more as money than, as metal.

Congress swiftly revoked their official-tender status (the only time this has been done with any U.S. coin), but the seeds of momentous worry had been sown. In the postponed 1870s, employers bought up huge facts of the coins at slightly more than gold meaning (80 to 83 cents apiece) and then put them in pay envelops at face value. Merchants and banks accepted them only at gold value or unwanted them altogether, so the workforce effectively mislaid one sixth to one-fifth of their pay when that pay often amounted to less than $10 a week.

Spurning abroad and despised by many at home, the trade dough rapidly pale into stupor. After 1878, production was hanging excepting for proofs-and even those dwindled to just ten in 1884 and five in 1885.

Like many other "fantasy" coins before them, the 1884 and 1885 pieces were clandestinely struck for Mint chum William Idler and were nameless to the numismatic village pending six pieces from Dealer John sold idler's estate Haseltine in 1908. Notwithstanding their questionable cause, these two dates are viewed as great rarities nowadays.

In all, fewer than 36 million trade dollars were struck during the coin's 13-year existence, plus about 11,000 proofs. Production took place at Philadelphia, Carson City and San Francisco. The rarest sphere smacked is the 1878-CC with a mintage of 97,000, many of which develop to have been melted. All high-grade business strikes of the trade cash are scarce to non-current, leaving proofs to charge most of the order from typeface collectors.

The extraordinary beauty of originally-toned proofs entices many collectors to shot complete evidence runs (without the almost unavailable 1884 and 1885, of course). Indeed, any trade dollar is amply cherished and required in untouched train. Points to rein for show compose Liberty's ear, left knee and breast and the eagle's supervise and left wing.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Designer: William Barber
Weight: 27.22 grams
Net weight: 0.7874 oz wholesome silver
Composition: 0 .900 silver, 0.100 copper
Diameter: 38.1 mm
Edge: reeded
Minted at: Philadelphia, Carson City, San Francisco
Years Minted: 1873 to 1885
Mint blotch: On reversal below eagle and above the 'D' in the word 'dollar.'
Notes: Key meeting 1878CC due to numerous coins being melted and low mintage. Proofs are uncommon too. Many trade dollars have been counterstamped with Chinese 'chop lettering'. These marks typically lessen the coin.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Bowers, Q. David, Silver Dollars & Trade Dollars of the United States, A Complete Encyclopedia, Bowers and Merena, Wolfeboro, NH, 1993. Breen, Walter, Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins, F.C.I. Press/Doubleday, New York, 1988. Willem, John M. The United States Trade Dollar, Whitman Publishing Co., Racine, WI, 1965. Yeoman, R.S., A Guide Book of United States Coins, 48th Edition, Western Publishing Co., Racine, WI, 1994.

Coin Information Provided Courtesy NGC.

Continental dollar 1776 Coin

In July, 1776 the American Revolution had entered its following, vital year. The shooting at Lexington and Concord and George Washington's appointment as chief in chief of the Continental Army were a year previous. The British had unexpectedly evacuated occupied Boston, and the commander and crowd were enjoying an all-too-update time of victory.

Sitting since May 1775, the Second Continental Congress had stirred from attempted conciliation with the British Crown to a forthright vote for Independence on July 2, 1776. On July 4 the first lasting delegates signed the vital record which affirmed that the 13 past colonies "were and by right ought to be liberated and independent states."

Loosely united even in the base of war, the new states had no unity anything in penny and currency. Each began printing its own paper currency valued both in British-approach pounds, shillings and pence and in the universally friendly Spanish Milled buck. The states valued the Spanish money at wildly different toll ranging from eight shillings in New York to 32 shillings sixpence in South Carolina. In the first flush of independence, Congress apparently decisive to fast America's sovereignty by launching a distinctive new money, known to numismatists as the Continental Dollar. Sometime in July 1776, most maybe in New York City, these coins were struck in silver, brass and pewter. More than 60 outlast nowadays, of which the superior number are pewter.

The coins' distinctively American designs are attributed to philosopher, directory poet and statesman Benjamin Franklin. The facade bears a sundial with the Franklin-esque Latin motto FUGIO, "I (Time) Fly," coupled with an English admonition MIND YOUR BUSINESS below. The legend CONTINENTAL CURRENCY and bold meeting 1776 begin within the outer beaded border. The problem presents 13 continual relations, each influence a disarray name or abbreviation from N'HAMP'S to VIRGINIA. At the center, AMERICAN CONGRESS surrounds the hopeful motto WE ARE ONE.

Noted numismatic scholar Eric P. Newman published a definitive review of the Continental coins in 1952, noting the chief frontage types with their charming mixture of spellings, CURENCY, CURRENCY and CURRENCEY. All show FUGIO between two sound concentric lines, but the most fascinating coins have an added engraver's "signature," EG FECIT.

Numismatists usually settle that "EG" was Elisha Gallaudet, an experienced line message engraver of Freehold, New Jersey. Gallaudet was very known with the Continental Dollar invent, since he had carved the same cipher on the One Sixth Dollar Continental Currency comments of Feb. 17, 1776, plus sun dial, FUGIO and links. FECIT, Latin for MADE IT, was a widely worn identification usual to collectors of contemporary European coins and medals. Researchers think that Gallaudet only adapted his paper money shape to the designed new coins at the invitation of Congress, probably during the rash living of July 1776 when heavy French loans were projected to offer the vital silver for a new native money.

The July 1776 through September 1778 cycle of Continental Currency written by Franklin's old definite of Hall & Sellers stumped the one-dollar receipt, and New York State's August 1776 currency cycle also skips over this then-clever denomination. This plain slotted was almost sure to have been crammed by the future new silver coin. Study of 1776 New York and Philadelphia newspaper hearsay leads researchers to suppose that the brass coins were future to circulate not as dollars but as pence, to expand and reinstate the spacious category of assorted coppers then in use.

The silver and brass piece may have been planned as dollars and pennies, but the reason of the pewter coins is less clear. They may have been struck as a crisis appraise after the want of gold barred a silver change. With the need for brass in cannon-making eliminating that alloy, pewter would have been the next plausible change facts. Pewter was used everywhere for household tools including dishes. Less perilous for weapon-making, tin-based pewter would have made an acceptable emergency money. Virtually any metal would have made an enviable alternative for unsecured Continental paper, which promptly lost its profit with the start of the bind of navy disasters that virtually swamped Washing-ton's forces later in 1776.

American defeat in the contend of Long British occupation followed island of New York City. Continuing American retreats led ultimately to the deficit of New Jersey, the fall of Philadelphia and the dreadful coldness at Valley Forge. By dead 1777, the cachet of Congress and the merit of its paper currency were nearly vanished, and the idea of a metallic Continental penny receded like a vision.

A beloved with collectors of Early American change, Continental dollars are sometimes included in superior sort collections for example of the first U.S. dollar coin. Obviously since some use in exchange, existing pewter and brass specimens vary in grade from Very Fine to Uncirculated, while the silver pieces also show anecdotal degrees of circulation. High points on both sides of the coin are the rings, which show the first traces of dress.

An assortment of restrikes live, the first being made for the 1876 Centennial celebration, with additional strikings charming place over the years. Porous cast counterfeits abound, making practiced authentication a need, particularly for slash grade pieces. All the issues do not conform to any genuine ensign, varying both in authority and diameter.

Ultimately the new United States won the protracted war, but the first federally authorized coinage was not to occur until 1787. This took the form of copper cents direction (of all stuff!) a healthy sun over a sun dial with the mottos FUGIO and MIND YOUR BUSINESS, and with 13 links and WE ARE ONE on the inverse. After 11 years, Gallaudet's designs at last came into their own.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Diameter: 37.7-40.7 millimeters (varies) Weight: 15.03-18.51 grams (varies) Composition: Pewter (.950+ tin and start.050 sketch elements) Edge: Twin folio ornamentation.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Alexander, David T. and DeLorey, Thomas K. Coin World Comprehensive Catalog & Encyclopedia of United States Coins, World Almanac-Pharos Books, New York, 1990. Breen, Walter, Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins, Doubleday/FCI, New York, 1988. Hodder, Michael J. "The Continental Currency Coinage of 1776, a Trial Die and Metallic Emission Sequence," The American Numismatic Association Centennial Anthology, Colorado Springs, CO. 1991. Mossman, Philip L. Money of the American Colonies and Confederation, a Numismatic, Economic & Historical Correlation, American Numismatic Society, New York, 1993. Newman, Eric P. The 1776 Continental Currency Coinage Varieties of the Fugio Cent, Wayte Raymond Inc., New York, 1952.

Coin Information Provided Courtesy NGC
Photo courtesy the US Mint

Flowing Hair Silver Dollars 1794-1795

The money was the cornerstone of the fiscal practice devised by the Founding Fathers for the fledgling United States. More than two existence approved, however, between the time Congress authorized cash currency and the actual production of the first such coin, the Flowing Hair silver dough.

Congress itself was responsible for the break. As part of the vital Mint Act of April 2, 1792, the House and Senate specific that two key Mint officers-the chief coiner and assayer-would have to publish bonding of $10,000 each before they could work with precious metal. The requirement was onerous: It represented more than six period the annual salary of $1,500 each provided for these two officers. Understandably, they had effort gathering it-and, awaiting they did, only copper penny could proceed.

Frustrating by this roadblock in his labors to begin detailed-range money, Mint Director David Rittenhouse appealed for help to Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, the Cabinet executive then in custody of the Mint. Jefferson got Congress to decrease the bonds to $5,000 for Chief Coiner Henry Voigt and $1,000 for Assayer Albion Cox; they then put up the money and the Mint was limitless at last to produce the lasting denominations. By then it March of 1794, and the red record had price the Mint a whole production year of precious-metal change: The only coins issued in 1793 had been copper cents and half cents. (Although the Mint was established in 1792 and it struck some coins that year, all are viewed as patterns very than endorsed federal issues.)

Silver coinage started in 1794 with two denominations-the buck and half dough; both were alike in sketch (half dimes of this meeting were coined the next year). The money was deemed the most prestigious, so Mint officials firm to punch that first. Actually, the Mint had gotten a running depart on the new coins: Engraver Robert Scot had been told to arrange designs for them months before the legal scowl was untangled.

Congress had specific that the new coins should hold a target "emblematic of Liberty," and Scot accomplished this with a right-facing likeness of a childish female consider whose beard flowed liberally behind her-thus the descriptive term "Flowing Hair." The word LIBERTY appears above her, with the year below and 15 stars along the sides, symbolizing the number of states in the Union at that time. Scot is said to have intended the flowing coat to imply looseness. A sample 25-cent instance of 1792 served as Scot's exemplary for the facade; this had been planned by Joseph Wright, who died of blonde fever in 1793 after helping quickly as Mint engraver. The money's quash depicts a small, swell-winged eagle floating on an astound and surrounded by laurel twigs. Encircling this, along the border, is the motto UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. The dough's "third elevation," the side, carries the inscription HUNDRED CENTS ONE DOLLAR OR UNIT, with decorations separating the lexis.

The Flowing Hair dough is faintly larger and heavier than later U.S. cartwheels like the Morgan and Peace dollars. Its authorized sheerness differs, too, but its actual delicacy doesn't, because some probing events at the Mint. Congress had specific a curious alloy of 1485/1664 silver and 179/1664 copper, for thinness of .8924+. Nevertheless Assayer Cox complained that this was too trying to achieve and, what's more, that silver coins would deed black in normal use save they were at least .900 select. He prevailed on Rittenhouse to let him use that elevated pennant, even however Congress hadn't penalized it, creating an incredible municipal where the Mint was actually breech the law of the land. This led to substantial losses for people who deposited silver gold with the Mint and took silver dollars in return, for they were being mandatory to deliver more silver per coin than the law mandatory. Eventually, some sought and obtained reimbursement.

It's supposed that the Mint struck a overall of 2,000 silver dollars in 1794, all from a distinct couple of dies. Evidently, some were abandoned as being excessively weak and may have finished up being used as coin blanks the next year or just being melted. The accepted net mintage is 1,758, with estimates of about 120-130 survivors in all grades. The whole production occurred on an unmarried day, October 15, and Voight stored many of the coins in the Mint's vaults, generous them to Rittenhouse the following May. The Director existing a few of the dollars to VIPs as souvenirs and made a heart of spending some (or exchanging them for Spanish dollars) to get the coins before the free. Rittenhouse never distributed all the coins, however, resigning due to without shape in June of 1795. This set the step for a very interesting piece of numismatic memoirs,

Almost 170 being later, in 1964, a small box of "peculiar" coins was consigned to a Christies mart in London by the family of British nobleman Major Sir Roland Denys Guy Winn, M.C., Fourth Baron St. Oswald. The box enclosed about $10 in face help of new U.S. coins, square each 1794 or 1795. Most notable of these pieces were two uncirculated 1794 dollars which brought $11,400 each at the vending. When the coins returned to the United States, the excitement generated among American collectors began to take on a life of its own. A chronicle took burrow that had one of Lord St. Oswald's ancestors itinerant to Philadelphia in 1795 and receiving the coins soon from Henry DeSaussure, Rittenhouse's successor as Mint Director. While this account makes fascinating reading and has been accepted as fact for over thirty time, latest inquiries has naked that it's based fully on guess. No family minutes or accounts fund the proposition of a trip to the United States by a St. Oswald ancestor; in fact, they lean to refute it. We don't know for certain how the coins were obtained or by whom-only that they were in the St. Oswald family's possession in 1964. Perhaps an impending numismatic researcher will be able to loosen this mystery.

Farther buck production was floating awaiting a new lobby-competent of imparting fuller, stronger strikes-could be installed. It didn't resume awaiting early May of 1795, and from then through mid-October the new tackle cranked out more than 160,000 Flowing Hair dollars dated 1795. In October, the drawing gave way to a new Draped Bust cash, making the Flowing Hair dollar a two-year capture coin.

Despite its brevity, the Flowing Hair dollar cycle is broadly calm by form (most collectors selecting the 1795 spring, because it is so much more copious than 1794). Some of the 1795 dollars have two leaves below each wing of the eagle, while others have three. Both kinds are similarly free, however. There are no records of proofs for the year, but some 1795 dollars are professed to be "specimen" strikes. Mint state pieces of both dates are very unusual. Points to first show wear are the cheek, shoulder and tresses above Liberty's temple and the eagle's breast, proceed and wing-tops.

Flowing Hair dollars are coveted collectibles, not only because of their great curiosity but also because they possess such an athletic relation with the birth of both the realm and U.S. coinage. Silver dollars are enormously accepted, so this fleeting, small cycle indeed was the outset of something big.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Diameter: 39-40 millimeters Weight: 26.96 grams Composition: .8924 silver.1076 copper Edge: Lettered Net Weight: .77344 degree authentic silver

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Bowers, Q. David, Silver Dollars & Trade Dollars of the United States, A Complete Encyclopedia, Bowers and Merena Galleries, Wolfeboro, NH, 1993. Breen, Walter, Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins, F.C.I. Press/Doubleday, New York, 1988. Hodder, Michael J. "Who was Major the Lord St. Oswald?," The Asylum, Fall, 1994. Reiver, Jules, The United States Early Silver Dollars 1794 to 1804, Krause Publications, Iola, WI, 1998. Taxay, Don, The U.S. Mint and Coinage, Arco Publishing Co., New York, 1966. Yeoman, R.S., A Guide Book of United States Coins, 47th Edition, Western Publishing Co., Racine, WI, 1993.

Coin Information Provided Courtesy NGC.

Walking Liberty Half Dollars 1916-1947

Thomas Woodrow Wilson barely won re-choice as 28th president of the United States, campaigning on the slogan, "He kept us out of war!" Within a few months, American troops would be route for Europe after all. Mack Sennett's Keystone Kops were making millions laugh in the state's film houses, while New York's Wally Pipp home-run ruler in baseball's American League.

The year was 1916, and America was a realm in ferment. It was a time of transition: from steed and pram to horseless carriage ... Farms to cities ... Domestic tranquility to alien entanglement ... Concord to war.

Major changes were taking place in United States money, too. Within the earlier decade, exciting new designs had debuted on six different U.S. coins, supplanting the quiet, dull 19th-century portraits that preceded them. And now, in 1916, three more old-smartness coins-the Barber silver coins-course for the sidelines as well.

Outside artists not on the wand of the U.S. Mint had furnished new designs for the six preceding changes, and Mint Director Robert W. Woolley showed his satisfaction by open scarce again. In 1915, he invited three noted sculptors-Hermon A. MacNeil, Albin Polasek and Adolph A. Weinman, all New York City-to prime designs for the three silver coins, apparently with the intention of awarding a different coin to each artist. The Mint may not have intended it this way, but Weinman useless up receiving two of the three coins, the dime and half cash, with MacNeil receiving the area and Polasek being closed out. It's hard to picture how Polasek or somebody moreover could have improved on the charming entries, although, for all three of the new coins-the Mercury dime, Standing Liberty area and Walking Liberty half money-are magnificent money artworks.

A.A. Weinman was born in Germany but came to the United States at the age of ten in 1880. He honed his skills as a student of the infamous Augustus Saint-Gaudens and, by 1915, he was commonly acclaimed as one of the homeland's finest sculptors.

For the frontage of his intention, Weinman chose a gorged-span numeral of Liberty striding near the dawning of a new day, clad in the Stars and Stripes and hauling twigs of laurel and oak symbolizing civil and military glory. The switch depicts an imposing eagle balanced on a mountain cliff, wings stretched in a pose suggesting right, with a sprout of mountain pine-symbolic of America springing from a schism in the swing. These brightly partisan themes resonated wholly across a state then preparing to record World War I, ironically against the land of Weinman's birth. Weinman placed his initials (AW) speedily under the eagle's tailfeathers.

Unlike the other two Barber coins, the Barber half buck wasn't bent in 1916. Even so, the Mint delayed release of the new Walking Liberty coin pending tardy November. It drew abrupt praise. The New York Sun, for example, pronounced it a "lively" coin, typifying "jostle," while the Boston Herald said it had a "brazen look on its face."

First-year coins from the turn mints in Denver and San Francisco take the "D" or "S" mintmark on the frontage, below IN GOD WE TRUST, as do some pieces minted the next year. Partway through production in 1917, the mintmarks' spot was motivated to the decrease left of the setback, just below the sapling, and that's where it remained pending the cycle defunct in 1947.

Over 485 million Walking Liberty halves were made between 1916 and 1947, but they were issued only sporadically during the 1920s and early '30s, nothing being minted in 1922, 1924-26 and 1930-32. These coins with substantial selling capacity, enough to buy a mooch of bread, a quart of milk and a dozen eggs in the early '30s, so it didn't take titanic quantities to stop Americans' wishes, especially after the Wall Street breakdown plunged the nation into the Great Depression.

Mintages were particularly low in 1921, and the P, D and S half dollars from that year all rank among the chief keys of the sequence. Other scarce issues contain the 1916, 1916-S, 1917-D and S (with the mintmarks on the facade) and 1938-D. Brilliant proofs were minted from 1936 to 1942, adding 74,400 pieces, and a very few satin-polish proofs were struck in 1916 and '17.

"Walkers," as they're frequently called, are large, precious-metal coins with a, much-admired goal. As a result, they presume great allure not only for traditional hobbyists but also for non-collectors. Many subsist in grades up to Mint State-65. Even above that reading, significant figures live for certain dates, particularly the later existence. Most dates, however, come weakly struck, particularly on Liberty's left hand and leg, supervise and skirt outline and on the eagle's breast and leg down. Sharply struck coins often mandate substantial premiums. In an effort to expand the salient characteristics of the figure, chief Engraver George made some lesser modifications T. Morgan in 1918 and again by Assistant Engraver John R. Sinnock in 1937 and 1938. None of the revisions seemed to help, as even later issues are often weak in the principal parts of the motif. Places to stop for carry compose Liberty's regulate, breast, arms and left leg and the breast, leg and forward wing of the eagle.

A stuffed set consists of 65 different time-and-mint combinations but is attempted and completed by many collectors. Although Walkers were not saved in any extent by the shared, particularly in the Depression living, professional numismatists like Wayte Raymond and others put away many early rolls during the '30s. Uncirculated specimens of certain dates in the 1910s and '20s are possibly only vacant today due to the insight of these astute dealers. Later-date Walkers also have a strong following: many collectors assemble "sharp sets" from 1934 to 1947 or 1941 to '47. Type collectors just obtain a distinct, high-grade example.

The Franklin the dollar succeeded the Walker in 1948. Nevertheless 38 years later, in 1986, Uncle Sam dusted off the Weinman create for the obverse of the one-degree American Eagle silver gold coin, which has been minted annually ever since.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Diameter: 30.6 millimeters Weight: 12.50 grams Composition: .900 silver.100 copper Edge: Reeded Net Weight: .36169 little untainted silver

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Breen, Walter, Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins, F.C.I. Press/Doubleday, New York, 1988. Fox, Bruce, The Complete Guide To Walking Liberty Half Dollars, DLRC Press, Virginia Beach, VA, 1993. Taxay, Don, The U.S. Mint and Coinage, Arco Publishing Co., New York, 1966. Vermeule, Cornelius, Numismatic Art in America, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1971. Yeoman, R.S., A Guide Book of United States Coins, 47th Edition. Western Publishing Co., Racine, WI, 1993.

Coin Information Provided Courtesy NGC.

Seated Liberty/No Motto Silver Dollars 1840-1873

The year was 1840. Martin Van Buren was completing a Presidential word ruined by terrible financial depression. This era, called the Hard Times, resulted from time of reckless Western land speculation and the evolution of unregulated banks issuing a flood of unsecured paper money. The prolonged depression ravished America's agriculture and trade and saw hundreds of thousands starving and unemployed.

Inheriting from President Andrew Jackson was the Van Buren Administration's loyalty in "hard money"- silver and gold-as the only unfailing warehouse of assess in compare to shaky thanks and worthless paper money. Expressing this hard money outlook, the Mint strove from 1836 to start a new circulating silver cash. No cash coin had appeared for circulation since 1804, when the last of the 1803-square Draped Bust dollars were released.

Mint Director Robert Maskell Patterson viewed the new money as the pinnacle of America's silver penny. After all, it was a fortunate worker who made even four dollars for a workweek of 76 to 80 hours of unremitting slog in this harsh era. A silver bucked was indeed a keep of wealth to millions of impoverished running-classify Americans.

An admirer of the seated Britannia on British copper penny, Patterson supposed that a seated female character would be just as "emblematic of liberty" as the heads and busts adorning the residents's money. He engaged the great study musician Thomas Sully to make sketching for his seated Liberty. Sully floating her on a sway in Grecian robes, left arm supporting a Union guard with a scroll adorned LIBERTY. Her right arm was raised and detained a staff topped with a small Liberty Cap. The Mint's assistant engraver, Christian Gobrecht, adapted the Sully sketches to bas-relief art fitting for money. The effect was the Seated Liberty create worn at one time or another on half dimes, dimes, 20-cent pieces, quarters, half dollars and dollars from 1836 through 1891.

As reworked by Gobrecht and Robert Ball Hughes, Liberty emerged with a rounded president and her dangling right arm appearing immensely long, her left patently shorter. Pattern obverses of 1836 and 1839 showed no frontage stars but placed the musician's signature in the turf or on the base. Gobrecht's novel reverses of 1836-1839 open a magnificent snatched eagle in a shining or patent sky. Unfortunately, the "No Motto" silver money of 1840-1865 deleted the innovative flying eagle, substituting the unimaginative but relaxed "sandwich lodge" bird with dropped wings and a safeguard on its breast. Liberty had no artist's signature and sat coyly in a crowd of 13 stars with the court placed below. The coins of 1840-65 do not have the motto IN GOD WE TRUST on the converse.

Mintages were commonly small by recent standards, adding only 2,895,673 coins for the cycle. The Philadelphia Minted (no mintmark) struck all dates from 1840 to 1865 inclusive; New Orleans (O), struck dollars square 1846, 1850, 1859 and 1860; the San Francisco Mint (S), struck this category money only in 1859. Mintmarks are located under the lime sphere, between the eagle's feet on the rearrange.

Tiny figures of proofs were struck of most early Philadelphia dates, but they are of great shortage. Numbers struck are not known with certainty and are gone from general handbook books. Proofs were first made for public selling in 1858 when perhaps 80 pieces were struck; later resistant mintages never exceeded 1,000 excluding for 1860, when 1,330 pieces were coined. Proof restrikes were made of the 1851 and 1852 coins. The last No Motto meeting was 1865, with 46,500 company strikes and 500 proofs made. Two 1866-dated No Motto coins are known, but these "fantasy pieces" were made somewhat later for auction to wealthy collectors. In recent years, the reality of a sole resilient 1851-O specimen has come to light, however researchers postulate that this was accidentally made by the Philadelphia "Midnight Minters," (possibly engraver George Eckfeldt and his son, Mint night watchman Theodore). In their swiftness clandestinely to sell the popular 1851 arise, they overstruck a vacant New Orleans Mint cash, the crushed 'O' mintmark still being quietly visible.

Seated dollars never circulated to any great point in the East, although facts were in daily use west of the Mississippi. The Civil War advanced restricted their circulation as the numbers of subject strikes and proofs struck contracted sharply. Bullion buyers snapped up most new silver coins for export as firmly as they were made. These coins were shipped overseas for melting, and the only U.S. Mint result most citizens saw were the new figurine cents. Coin collectors derided the Mint as "Uncle Sam's copperhead factory."

These large silver coins had some odd striking characteristics. The actual view of Liberty's lead may basis feeble detail even on perfect specimens. The fluff on the eagle's leg and the claws may also show mark of weak beat. Wear first appears on Liberty's thigh, right breast and the top of her precede. The tops of the eagle's wings chart. Because of their size and mass, uncirculated coins stored in Mint bags will show scattered link symbols. Proofs regularly are hairlined from the careless conduct of early non-numismatic owners or will show evidence of cleaning by old-time collectors.

Seating Liberty dollars have gained popularity with the utter antenna kinship since the 1970's, when the great U.S. Treasury reserve of silver dollars was liquidated, though few of them early type were found. To collectors more easy with Morgan and Peace dollars issued in the tens of millions, these formerly coins may appear scarce and vague, and indeed they are. Only a small marginal of all Seated Liberty dollars struck remain in existence today. Researcher Weimar W. White estimated that just a division continue-even in low grades.

Assembling an extensive date and mint set in reduce circulated grades is within reason, given patience and perseverance. A total set in mint kingdom will be costly, especially for examples of the 1850-O, 1851, 1852 and 1859-S. A complete run of proofs is a theoretically viable goal but one which will be unrealistic for any but the best-financed antenna.

The Seated Liberty series endless from 1866 to 1873 with the transpose motto IN GOD WE TRUST. The coinage acted of Feb. 12, 1873 ended the silver buck and abolished the official tender condition of all silver dollars struck from 1794 to 1873. This is the law later savagely denounced by the vocal partisans of released and unlimited coinage of silver as the "Crime of '73." Legal tender category was restored to the colors silver dollar under the Bland-Allison Act of 1878, which prompted the coining of millions of Morgan Dollars.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Diameter: 38.1 millimeters Weight: 26.73 grams Composition: .900 silver.100 copper Edge: Reeded Net Weight: .77344 oz untainted silver

BIBLIOGRAPHY Alexander, David T. DeLorey, Thomas K. And Reed, P. Bradley, Coin World Comprehensive Catalog & Encyclopedia of United States Coins, New York, World Almanac-Pharos Books, 1990. Bowers, Q. David, Silver Dollars and Trade Dollars of the United States, Bowers & Merena Galleries, Wolfeboro, NH, 1993. Breen, Walter, Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins, F.C.I. Press/Doubleday, New York, 1988. Vermeule, Cornelius, Numismatic Art in America, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1971. White, Weimar W. The Liberty Seated Dollar 1840-1873, New York, Sanford J. Durst, 1985.

Coin Information Provided Courtesy NGC.

Indian Head n Buffalo Nickels 1913-1938

It was a tricky time for Charles Barber, chief engraver of the United States Mint. Although Theodore Roosevelt was no longer in staff, his entreat to have more classical designs on our coins, as expressed to Augustus Saint-Gaudens over feast in 1905, was very much bustling.

Barber's uninspired Liberty Headed nickel had been in production since 1883. Under the Coinage Act of 1890, a change in the, its construct was allowable after 25 time. Secretary of the Treasury Franklin MacVeagh, originally a Roosevelt appointee, wasn't about to outdo up the opportunity. Reminding by his son in May, 1911 that a new nickel would be "A permanent memento of the most attractive mixture," MacVeagh, pointedly bypassing the competent but middling Barber, happening the manage for a new invent.

The Buffalo nickel became an actuality minus than two existence later. On March 4, 1913, coins from the first bag to go into circulation were unfilled to outgoing President Taft and 33 Indian chiefs at the groundbreaking ceremonies for the National Memorial to the North American Indian at Fort Wadsworth, New York.

James Earle Fraser, a past junior to Saint-Gaudens and a plentiful dancer best known for his monumental "End of the Trail" Indian figurine, twisted a rightly sole object for the new coin. Up pending that time, excluding for Bela Lyon Pratt's matter and the eagle of 1908, the "Indians" portrayed on U.S. coins were primarily Caucasian with an Indian headress, epitomized by Saint Gauden's Greek Nike control on the 1907 Indian eagle. Fraser's proposal accurately portrays a gentleman Native American, and the face image was a composite of three chiefs who had posed for him living previous. Keeping with the distinctly American theme, he depicted an American bison on the reorder. The inscriptions UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and E PLURIBUS UNUM are sneakily placed over the threaten, with the denomination FIVE CENTS below. The legend LIBERTY and the meeting are likewise well executed on the coin's face.

Fraser's outline was medallic and striking, and for secretary favored that purpose MacVeagh. Its charisma seemed completely to dodge Barber, who complained that the intention basics were too large and didn't tolerate for the polite post of inscriptions. Barber didn't get very far with this, as the goal remained unchanged over his objections.

Reservations also came from the vending machinery interest, whose campaign were planned primarily for accepting cents and nickels. Particularly persistent was the Hobbs Manufacturing Company, which marketed an android for detecting counterfeit coins. Mr. Hobbs was certain that Fraser's draft would not work in his mechanism, and he asked that significant changes be made to the models. After much bickering over this, Secretary MacVeagh instructed the Mint to proceed with the inventive fabricate and let the vending engine companies adapt their mechanisms to the coin.

Over 1.2 billion Buffalo Nickels were minted from 1913 through 1938 at three mints; Philadelphia (no mintmark), San Francisco (S), and Denver (D). The mintmark can be found on the reversal under the denomination, while the designer's early "F" is below the year.

There were two varieties made. Type 1 nickels, minted only during the first few months of 1913, had the denomination FIVE CENTS on a raised stack. As early as April, brisk erosion in this area became evident on the coins in circulation, so Barber finally got his chance to transform Fraser's intend. He cut away the mountain, creating an exergue into which the denomination was set. This solved the change abrasion conundrum, but then he reserved leaving. He smoothed out much of the designate and granularity in both the Indian's portrait and the bison's withhold. The ensuing Type 2, however, lacked much of the artistic contact of the initial.

Barber again made small modifications in 1916, and some specialists think this a third subtype, but most enter collectors only consider the Type 1 and 2 coins as actual varieties. It is foreign that during all his modifications, Barber never addressed the snag of the meeting bearing down too hastily.

No Buffalo nickels were made in 1922, 1932 and 1933. Some 5,967 dull proofs were made from 1913 through 1916, and 10,189 brilliant proofs in 1936 and 1937. Strike was an inherent trouble with this coin from the start, and many deceptively well struck business strikes have been incorrect for the matte proofs and associate versa. Many mintmarked coins, especially from 1918 through 1934, are almost unavailable well struck.

When grading these coins of this print, you must take the external into account, as many plump shine pieces will not show rounded relief specify on the high points of the horn or the fringe on the tail. Generally, the date and LIBERTY will be faint on feebly struck pieces. The points on the coin that clothes most willingly are the high instant of the Indian's cheekbone and the fleece near the part. On the reverse, the bison's hip, the fringe on its tail and the horn are the first areas to show scuffing.

Collectors of this string have a fascinating array of "tough" dates and rarities to pursue. The most intricate coin to gain is the very atypical 1918/7-D overdate. Another overdate exists for both the Philadelphia and San Francisco Mints-the subtle 1914/3. Scarce to singular dates in high grade include all the San Francisco coins from 1913 through 1928, with 1918, 1920 and 1924 through 1927 being the rarest. Denver coins are generally weaker strikes than San Francisco pieces. The gift the aerial with challenges like the 1918 through 1920 issues and the 1925 and 1926 coins, along with the prominent 1937-D 3-legged Buffalo. This awfully current variety (caused by excessive die-polishing to eradicate clash-marks) was not discovered awaiting most of the coins had reached circulation, making well-struck gem specimens very uncommon today. Particularly in the holder of the "3-legger" or the overdates, authentication by experts is advised, as many counterfeits survive.

Recent time had witnessed renewed collector interest in the Buffalo series, no mistrust stimulated by the wealth of new inquiries untaken by nickel specialists. An ever-budding number of numismatists are assembling finish sets of Buffaloes by date and mintmark. Demand is also clear from kind collectors, all whom seek this goal for their 20th Century-or more comprehensive-lettering sets. Although well struck, inexpensive nature examples such as 1938-D are available, many collectors wish to pursue one of the scarcer dates.

By the end of 1937 planning for the Buffalo nickel's successor was well under way, as the figure's mandatory 25 years would end the following year. It was to be replaced by the third coin to stand a likeness of one of our presidents, Thomas Jefferson. The Jefferson nickel continues in production to this day.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Diameter: 21.2 millimeters Weight: 5 grams Composition: .750 copper.250 nickel Edge: Plain

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Breen, Walter, Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins, F.C.I.Press/Doubleday, New York, 1988. Cohen, Annette R. and Druley, Ray M. The Buffalo Nickel, Potomac Enterprises, Arlington, VA, 1979. Lange, David W. The Complete Guide to Buffalo Nickels, DLRC Press, Virginia Beach, VA, 1992. Vermeule, Cornelius, Numismatic Art in America, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1971. Wescott, Michael, with Keck, Kendall, The United States Nickel Five-Cent Piece, Bowers and Merena Galleries, Wolfeboro, NH, 1991.

Coin Information Provided Courtesy NGC.

Saint-Gaudens Low-Relief Double Eagles 1907-33

Uniting States change has never been more scenic than it was in the early days of the 20th century. The Buffalo nickel . . . The Mercury dime . . . The Standing Liberty sector . . . The Walking Liberty half buck-these were among the aesthetically stunning coins that made their first appearance and circulated feature by face during that stop.

Fittingly, however, the centerpiece of this "blond age" wasn't a nickel or silver coin, but one made out of gold. The Saint-Gaudens lookalike eagle, or $20 gold example, stands above the place as the song most magnificent coin of this-or any-era in U.S. chronicle.

As the 1900s dawned, Augustus Saint-Gaudens was a towering build in the sphere of American flimsy arts. Widely acclaimed as the affirm's preeminent sculptor, he was also a man of fluency and influence who dominated the art world of his day not only by example but also through the problem of vigor and persuasion.

His brilliance and notoriety brought him to the interest of President Theodore Roosevelt, and the two men developed a convivial relationship that was at once both delicate and professional. In 1905, Saint- Gaudens planned a princely opening medal for the leader. Pleasing and impressed, Roosevelt then invited him to approach prospective new designs for the two chief U.S. gold coins, the bend eagle and eagle, and for a one-cent member (which never reached production). Saint-Gaudens welcomed the challenge and plunged into the task with all his prodigious energy and dexterity.

Both men admired the high-relief money of earliest Greece, and both decided that U.S. gold coins ornate after that sculpt would be a spectacular achievement. They would also pause in bare differ to the two undistinguished-looking coins that were being replaced, the Liberty lookalike eagle and the Coronet eagle, both of which had their roots in the first half of the 19th century.

Although his shape was deteriorating as the work went along, Saint-Gaudens created superb designs for both gold coins. The clone eagle, especially, is a masterpiece. Its frontage skin a chubby-chunk study of Liberty with a torch in her right hand and an emerald split in her left. She is exposed in achieve tramp with waves of sunlight behind her and the U.S. Capitol Building to the left of her flowing gown. Encircling her are 46 stars-one for each confusion in the Union at that time. The coin's overturn depicts a breathtaking eagle in departure, with the sun below extending its energy upward. Above the eagle, in two semicircular tiers, are the inscriptions UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and TWENTY DOLLARS. High points to bill for clothing are Liberty's breast and knee and the eagle's wing.

Saint-Gaudens located another necessary motto, E PLURIBUS UNUM, along the tiptoe of the coin, hence sinking the cover on the facade and swap and reinforcing their orderly, open look. He and Roosevelt conspired to forget IN GOD WE TRUST from the first of the new expand eagles, but God-fearing members of Congress noticed this and mandated addition of this motto on later issues, starting near the end of 1908. On pieces shaped thereafter, it appears above the sun on the switch.

Roosevelt and Saint-Gaudens intended that the coin would be struck in high relief to beget out each stabbing specify. Unfortunately, however, the singer died in 1907, almost on the eve of the coin's debut. Meanwhile, Roosevelt was preoccupied with more burning matters of state. All this, mutual with the requirements of stack-shaped coinage, gave Mint Chief Engraver Charles E. Barber an option and a tolerate to drop the coin's relief. High-race minting mandatory this, he said-and what's more, high-relief coins wouldn't stack.

Fortunately, the beauty of the coin relics dazzling, even in poorer relief. And thankfully, Saint-Gaudens' unusual art was preserved in its pristine beauty through the minting of small records of really high-relief patterns and high-relief corporate strikes in 1907-or pretty MCMVII, for the year was shown on these coins in Roman numerals.

The first production pieces were made with high relief. Nevertheless after unusual just 11,250, Mint officials substituted new dies with the bespoke, lower relief, and these remained in use through the end of the cycle. As if to underscore the modify from the classical to the commercial, the Mint worn Arabic numbers in dating all summary-relief dual eagles.

"Saints" were minted each year from 1907 through 1916. A three-year interval followed, after which the coins were struck yearly from 1920 through 1933. The part mints in Denver and San Francisco augmented the focal Philadelphia Mint production, but not in every year. Mint letters exist above the meeting the designer's initials (ASG) below.

From 1929 onward, newly minted examples were seized almost entirely as part of the homeland's gold coffers, with the being free into circulation. Almost all these were melted (along with the prior fold eagles) following the gold withdraw order signed in 1933 by another President Roosevelt-Theodore's cousin, Franklin. As a significance, twin eagles square 1929 through 1932 are exceedingly juicy nowadays. The Mint created nearly half a million pieces dated 1933, but the government maintains that these were never free, and, hence it is banned to own them. That was the end of accepted-emanate U. S. Gold coinage.

Mintages were normally modest, but minder melting, not low mintage, was primarily responsible for concept of the chief rarities, with the 1927-D, the 1920-S, the 1921, the 1930-S and the 1932. The survival of many of these dates is predominately due to the large capacity for gold coins held in Swiss and French invest vaults. Since the 50s, tens of thousands of "Saints" have found their way back to their country of beginning and into collectors' hands. Proofs are very rare as only 687 were untaken for sale from 1908 through 1915. They were made with an utterly dull surface excepting for 1909 and 1910 when they were made with a more brilliant Roman or satin determine. This large gold coined is actively hunted by a host of collectors: from gold hoarders to letters collectors to those challenged by the awesome (and costly) undertaking of assembling a complete date and mintmark set.

In 1986, the U.S. Treasury rewarded the "Saint" the utmost complement by placing its obverse sketch on the American Eagle gold bullion coins, where it has remained ever since.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Diameter: 34 millimeters Weight: 33.436 grams Composition: .900 gold.100 copper Edge: Lettered E PLURIBUS UNUM Net Weight: .96750 scrap downright gold

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Akers, David W. A Handbook of 20th-Century United States Gold Coins 1907-1933, Bowers & Merena Galleries, Wolfeboro, NH, 1988. Bowers, Q. David, United States Gold Coins, An Illustrated History, Bowers & Ruddy, Los Angeles, 1982. Breen, Walter, Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins, F.C.I. Press/Doubleday, New York, 1988. Dryfhout, John H. The Works of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, University Press of New England, Hanover, NH, 1982. Taxay, Don, The U.S. Mint and Coinage, Arco Publishing Co. Inc., New York, 1966. Vermeule, Cornelius, Numismatic Art in America, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1971.

Coin Information Provided Courtesy NGC.

Type 1 Gold Dollars 1849-1854

The nominal coin in U.S. chronicle owes its life to two of the chief gold rushes. That coin is the gold cash, a mere pipsqueak physically, but a giant in terms of record, curiosity and help.

The groundwork was laid for this fascinating coin in the Carolinas and Georgia, where the land's first big gold scuttle took place in the early 1800s. That scuttled had a chief influence on United States money, leading to the establishment of two aspect mints in the locality-in Charlotte, North Carolina, and in Dahlonega, Georgia-and a strong boost in the number of gold coins being made by the national government.

The first gold dollars made in the United States were privately minted issues created about 1830 by a German colonizer named Alt Christoph Bechtler who operated the trinkets shop in Rutherfordton, North Carolina. Finding that gold dust and nuggets were the first form of exchange in the field, Bechtler ran a cycle of ads in the North Carolina Spectator and Western Advertiser donation to refine raw gold into coins for a nominal fee.

By 1840, Bechtler and his family had turned out more than $2.2 million worth of gold coins, of which about half were gold dollars. This was perfectly official under the untaken central statutes-but, even so, Uncle Sam began to inspect the Bechtlers closely. The victory of their venture led to call for government-supply gold cash coins. In 1836, Congress even authorized such coins, but Mint Director Robert M. Patterson disparate the idea vehemently and partial his compliance to salient a handful of patterns.

The gold money didn't take its place in the U.S. currency plan awaiting 1849, and yet another gold hurry-this one in California-provided the glimmer. The discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in 1848 eager Congress to inflate offered uses of the metal in U.S. penny and find some new ones.

Mint Director Patterson was still on the view and still opposite such currency, but this time his resistance was swept tangent. On March 3, 1849, Congress approved legislation authorizing not only gold dollars but also clone eagles-$20 gold pieces. Thus did the citizens's minimum and biggest recurring-topic gold coins emerge from Washing-ton's womb as fraternal twins.

The job of crafty both new coins chop to James Barton Longacre, the U.S. Mint's chief engraver. For both, he came up with a similar facade blueprint: a left-facing picture of Miss Liberty with a circlet, or small crown, in her curls. On the cash, she is bordered by 13 stars, symbolic of the 13 unique colonies. The buck's reverse is necessarily unfussy because of the coin's small amount: It bears the denomination 1 DOLLAR and the time within a simple garland, which is bordered by the inscription UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

This pointed would wait in use pending 1854 before generous way to an "Indian Head" depiction and other modifications. The Indian led, in roll, would be enlarged two living later. Thus, there are three distinct types of gold dollars, with the "Liberty Head" kind of 1849-54 being known as "Type 1." Within the Type 1 change, there are also two important varieties in the gold dollars of 1849: Some have an "open" garland with ample freedom between the top of the garland and the number "1," while others have a "congested" circlet near tender the number.

During their six years of production, Type 1 gold dollars were struck at five different mints-Philadelphia (no mint blot), Charlotte (C), Dahlonega (D), New Orleans (O) and San Francisco (S)-but only the Philadelphia and Dahlonega mints issued them every year. San Francisco made them only in 1854, while Charlotte and New Orleans made them every year except 1854. The mintmark can be found below the headdress.

Mintages for the most part were relatively high at Philadelphia and New Orleans but much lesser at the other three mints. In 1850 and again in 1852, the Charlotte and Dahlonega twigs made fewer than 10,000 gold dollars each. The lowest mintage of all took place at Dahlonega in 1854, when a mere 2,935 examples were formed. Other foremost rarities embrace the 1853-D (with a mintage of 6,583) and the 1851-D (mintage 9,882).

Type 1 gold dollars are scarce but untaken in grades up through Mint State-64, but they're bloody in MS-65 and very rare above that direct. The uppermost relief points on the Type 1 gold dollar are the hair near the coronet and the tips of the leaves on the garland. These are where traces of attire first develop and, hence are major keys in determining grade. Although composed by court and mintmark in circulated grades, the curiosity of high grade pieces generally confines collectors to just one example for their lettering sets.

Proofs were not struck officially, but the behind Walter Breen, a famous numismatic researcher and scholar, reported that at slightest seven proofs were made in 1849 of the capture with open circlet and no letter L on the bust. He also knew of at slightest three proofs of the stopped wreath mode dated 1849. Proofs are also believed for 1850 and 1851, and at least one is known for 1854.

Throughout U.S. account, people have grumbled that silver dollars were too large and gray to transfer around. Gold dollars posed a dramatically different puzzle: at minus than three-quarters the mass of today's dime, they were so small they could certainly be absent. Make no blunder, while: These tiny coins had tremendous purchasing faculty equivalent to a stuffed day's wages or more for many Americans in the mid-1800s. They also like massive recognize from collectors today, for while they may be diminutive in amount, their rarity and cherish can be soaring.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Diameter: 13 millimeters Weight: 1.672 grams Composition: .900 gold.100 copper Edge: Reeded Net Weight: .04837 scrap downright gold

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Akers, David W. United States Gold Coins, Volume I, Gold Dollars 1849-1889, Paramount Publications, Englewood, OH, 1975. Breen, Walter, Major Varieties of U. S. Gold Dollars, Hewitt Numismatic Printers, Chicago. Breen, Walter, Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins, F.C.I. Press/Doubleday, New York, 1988. Taxay, Don, The U.S. Mint and Coinage, Arco Publishing Co., New York, 1966. Winter, Douglas, Gold Coins of the Charlotte Mint 1838-1861, DWN Publishing, Dallas, 1998. Winter, Douglas, Gold Coins of the Dahlonega Mint 1838-1861, DWN Publishing, Dallas, 1997. Winter, Douglas, New Orleans Mint Gold Coins: 1839-1909, Bowers & Merena Galleries, Wolfeboro, NH, 1992.

Coin Information Provided Courtesy NGC.