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.
