The Renaissance of United States Coinage, 1907-21
Indians Come, Indians Go: Part I
by Tolling Jennings

Setting the Stage.

    The Victorian Age was over. Tesla had lighted the Crystal Palace at the Chicago World's Fair with alternating current just over ten years earlier. The United States had just won another dirty little trumped-up expansionist war with Spain and the powers in Europe and the rest of the world were gearing up for a militaristic showdown the likes of which had never been seen before. The Bolsheviks would riot in the winter of '05 and one archduchy would lose its prince in Sarajevo in the spring of 1914. The old world was rapidly changing and a new breed of man was elected to the White House.

Saint Gaudens' Gold.

    The transformation of United States coinage began with the election of T. Roosevelt as president of the country in 1906. Pres. Roosevelt felt that a complete makeover of the coinage was long overdue. He felt the Barber series was functional but lacked artistic merit and that the engravers at the mint were past their prime. The gold coins had had the same designs for over 50 years and a new series that was more representative of the spirit of the nation was in order.

    One of the innovations that Pres. Roosevelt instituted was to go beyond the in-house staff of the mint (much to their concern and objection), to the artistic community of the time and enroll them in the design and modelling process. This break with tradition has carried through to the present day with design concepts for the 50 States Quarter Program® coming from artists outside the mint.

    Roosevelt focused on the Eagle and double Eagle gold coins for the first new coin designs and called on Augustus St. Gaudens, a personal friend, to execute high-relief models reflecting the glories of ancient coinage. The Mint staff's concerns proved to be justified when it was found to take up to nine blows from the coining press to strike up the new double Eagles ($20.00) coins. This challenging task, along with the fact that the new coins would not stack and that the motto "In God We Trust" had been purposely removed from the coins (Roosevelt felt that the deity had no place on the nation's coinage), caused great concern and ended with a redesign of the coin, creating some of the most sought-after rarities in U.S. coinage. Even a VF "high-relief, wire-rim" 1907 double Eagle would cost in the five-figure range. From mid-1907 on, the coins have low relief and Arabic numbers instead of the Roman numerals of the original design. The motto "In God We Trust" was added in mid-1908, creating two varieties for the year.

    St. Gaudens did not live to see his designs come to life, dying in early 1907. The double Eagle with the robust torch-bearing Miss Liberty, striding to the top of a mountain carrying an oak branch in her left hand with the Capitol building resting under the rising sun of a new day, holds the reputation of being the most beautiful of all U.S. coins. The political statement that the U.S. was willing to carry the torch of Freedom into the new century and use force to do so (oak in left hand shows preparedness to go to war yet reluctant to engage) could not be missed. This was a rather prophetic statement considering that  the  First World  War  would  erupt  in Europe within the next decade. If
 

Top: $20 "High Relief", dated MCMVII (1907)
Bottom: $20 "Low Relief" dated 1907 in Arabic numbers.

there is any doubt, just turn one of these beauties over and the magnificence of the powerful eagle in full flight, indicating that the country was willing to take to the air (travel) to spread freedom, is obvious.

    The 1907 Gold Eagle ($10.00) was another triumph for St. Gaudens. Some of the same issues arose around the Eagle as were to plague the double Eagle. The motto "In God We Trust" was omitted and reinstated in the first year of issue. The addition of the motto to the reverse of the coin took a beautifully proportioned coin and turned it into one that is crowded and off-balance. The eagle appears to be pulling its head back in horror at the appearance of the motto. The coin has a stunning rendition of an art nouveau Indian in full head dress facing left with a use of proportion and field-to-device ratio that creates the effect of a living being about to speak to anyone lucky enough to hold one of these coins in their hand. Roosevelt's dream of returning to the beauty of ancient coinage was realized with this coin. These two coins set the stage for what was to come in the next 15 years at the Mint.

Above: Original obverse models for the $10, the face that of Mary Cunningham, a maid in the service of the St.-Gaudens. The $10 reverse was originally meant for the $20.

The $10 "No Motto" reverse, 1907                    The $10 as they appeared after modification

U.S.A., $5, 1908-D The first year of Bela Pratt's "recessed design". The corresponding $2.50 "Quarter Eagle" had the same design. (Enlarged, ca. 2x)

disarming in its subtlety as St. Gaudens' high relief was with its boldness. The use of an American Indian as a representation of Liberty in a country where there had been a plank in U.S. Grant's party's platform that called for the shipping of smallpox-infected blankets to the natives to deal with the "Indian problem", was seen by some to be the height of hypocrisy. The disappearance of the American Indian would continue to be a theme in U.S. coinage for years to come. The recessed images of these coins create a challenge to graders. Perhaps more than in any other coin the state of the field plays the largest part in the grading of these coins. The images on these coins remain in relative good condition even on coins in low grades. The only costly coins in the $2.50 and $5.00 Indian series are the 1911-D and the 1929 respectively. Both of these coins are rare and expensive. The rest of both series are collectable and an EF example can be had at bullion-related prices

September

MICCy Speaks Pages 2 - 3

"Renaissance of U.S. Coinage 1907-21". Pt. 1 (Jennings)  3 - 7

"The St. John's $100 Commemorative, 1983" 7 - 13

"The British Protectorate of Egypt, 1914-1922 " 13 - 16

2006