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.

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.

What Are Mint Sets?

What Is Mint Sets?

United States Mint Sets are completed sets of uncirculated coins bent by a particular mint that year. The sets confine one coin of each denomination, in the first minted prepare.

For example, each year's mint coin set contains a currency, nickel, dime, district, half dough, and dough coin minted in that year. All coins may not have been produced each year and some may have been made with more than one invent, so your coin set may not delimit every denomination listed above or it could surround more than one of a particular denomination.

An example would be the 50 disarray quarters. The mint coin sets from the days the quarters were made will contain five quarters, one of each of the five states represented that particular year.

Unlike evidence coin sets, the coins limited in uncirculated sets are not minted with any unique condition considerations. They are the average coins that are planned for circulation that are expressly packaged by the mint for collectors. Except, these coins are UNCIRCULATED.

Mint Sets were first existing by the United States Mint in 1947, and from 1947 to 1958, the U.S. Mint included two coins of each denomination. These coins were mounted in cardboard holders. In 1950, however, no coin sets were issued.

In 1959, the U.S. Mint began using fake envelops, to help field the coins. At that time they began only including one coin of each denomination in the coin sets.

During the living 1965 through 1967, SMS (unique mint sets) were issued. The coins in these sets were packaged in elite synthetic cases, and were quicker to proof coin class.

In 1976, a unique three chunk bicentennial set was released besides the reliable copy coin set. The three section set limited the Bicentennial section, half money, and dollar made with 40 percent silver. The habitual set for 1976 also contains these coins, but they are made with a combination of nickel and copper.

Official coin sets were not released by the U.S. Mint in 1982 and 1983.

Proof coin sets are also approved coin sets from United States Mint excluding that the coins enclosed in each yearly set are all proof coins.

Collectors can order these coin sets for the modern year on the U.S. Mint's website.