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Catalog Data

Mint:
U.S. Mint, Philadelphia  Search this
Designer:
Saint-Gaudens, Augustus  Search this
Physical Description:
gold (overall metal)
0 (overall die axis)
0 (overall die axis measurement)
struck (overall production method)
Measurements:
overall: 2 mm x 27 mm; 3/32 in x 1 1/16 in
Object Name:
coin
Place of issue:
United States
Date made:
1907
Description (Brief):
One (1) 10 dollar coin, pattern
United States, 1907
Obverse Image: Left-facing Liberty wearing a feather headdress, 13 stars along top edge of coin.
Obverse Text: LIBERTY / 1907
Reverse Image: Eagle with wings folded standing on top of a bundle of arrows and branch.
Reverse Text: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA / E PLURIBUS UNUM / TEN DOLLARS
Description:
In 1905 President Theodore Roosevelt asked sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens to lead an effort to redesign American coinage. Saint-Gaudens developed a design that many consider the most beautiful American coin ever conceived. In addition to this $20 coin, Saint-Gaudens also redesigned this $10 coin, or eagle. Although the design has always been considered subordinate to his design for the $20 coin, it deserves close scrutiny. It bears witness to the labors of a gifted artist, working in ill health and under great pressure, and creating beauty almost at his final moment.
Saint-Gaudens was working against time and knew it. By the time he turned his attention to the ten-dollar coin, he was already gravely ill, with only a few months to live. So he recycled some earlier ideas. He reused a head of Victory that he had originally created for the Sherman Monument in New York City, adding a war bonnet. The result was fanciful, and Saint-Gaudens's logical equation of Liberty with a Native American was no more convincing than Longacre's version on the Indian Head cent.
But from an artistic point of view, it worked. The eagle on the reverse was also recycled, this time from President Roosevelt's inaugural medal. The coin shown here was struck in modest quantity-about thirty-two thousand pieces. However, all but forty-two were ultimately melted down.
Location:
Currently not on view
Related Publication:
Zoomable Image and Details
Glossary of Coins and Currency Terms
Related Web Publication:
http://americanhistory.si.edu/coins/glossary.cfm
Credit Line:
United States Mint
ID Number:
1985.0441.2097
Catalog number:
1985.0441.2097
Accession number:
1985.0441
See more items in:
Work and Industry: National Numismatic Collection
Coins
Numismatics
Coins, Currency and Medals
Legendary Coins
Data Source:
National Museum of American History
GUID:
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a9-6faf-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:nmah_1100215