Coins, Currency, and Medals - Overview
The Museum possesses one of the largest numismatic collections in the world. The collections include over 1 million objects, comprising coins, medals, decorations, and pieces of paper money. Among the many great rarities here are some of the world’s oldest coins, created 2,700 years ago. But the collection also includes the latest innovations in electronic monetary exchange, as well as beads, wampum, and other commodities once used as money. A special strength lies in artifacts that illustrate the development of money and medals in the United States. The American section includes many rare and significant coins, such as two of three known examples of the world's most valuable coin, the 1933 double eagle $20 gold piece.
"Coins, Currency, and Medals - Overview" showing 14 items.
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United States, Three Dollars, Proof, 1857
- Description
- United States Mint, Philadelphia. Obverse: Liberty with feather headdress, facing left. Reverse: Denomination and date within cereal wreath. Including this one, five proof $3 pieces are currently known for 1857.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1857
- mint
- U.S. Mint, Philadelphia
- ID Number
- 1985.0441.0537
- catalog number
- 1985.0441.0537
- accession number
- 1985.0441
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
United States, Twenty Dollars, 1849
- Description
- Moffat & Company's mint, San Francisco. Obverse: Eagle with shield, fineness above. Reverse: Engine-turning with name and date in center. This was the final production of the provisional United States operation in San Francisco. A formal branch U.S. Mint was set up soon and began operations in the spring of 1854. A few proof strikes of the 1853 double eagle are known, including this coin.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1853
- mint
- U.S. Assay Office
- ID Number
- 1985.0551.0720
- catalog number
- 1985.0551.0720
- accession number
- 1985.0551
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
United States, Twenty Dollars, 1853 (California-Moffat & Co.)
- Description
- Produced at Moffat & Company's mint, San Francisco, California. Obverse: Liberty head, stars around, date below. Reverse: Eagle, denomination. Obverse and reverse designs bear a close and deliberate similarity to those used on the "official" double eagle of the same period produced by the U.S. Mint for regular circulating coins.
- Moffat & Company was a major player in the production of California private gold coinage. It was closely connected with Augustus Humbert and the fifty-dollar "slugs" of the United States Assay Office of Gold in San Francisco. Humbert did the assaying and Moffat did the coining. This 1853 double eagle is one of the last coins struck by this prolific California pioneer coiner. It was minted in the late summer or early autumn of 1853.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1853
- maker
- Moffat & Company
- ID Number
- 1991.0009.0990
- catalog number
- 1991.0009.0990
- accession number
- 1991.0009
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Five Dollar Half Eagle Gold Coin
- Description
- The half eagle, or $5 coin, was the first gold coin actually struck for the United States. The $5 gold piece was authorized by the Act of April 2, 1792, and the weights and fineness for gold coins were revised with statutes during the 1830s. The occasion for new laws was the discovery of gold in North Carolina and Georgia. Prior to 1830, the scarcity of precious metals was one reason why there was less than one U.S. coin per capita in the United States. Foreign coins, paper bank notes, and privately issued tokens served as money for transactions.
- The development of the newly discovered gold fields was encouraged with a law in 1834 that effectively put the United States on a gold standard. Branch mints in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Dahlonega, Georgia were established in 1838 to handle the new gold near the source. Dies were manufactured in Philadelphia and transported to the functioning branch mints in Charlotte (1838-1861) and Dahlonega (1838-1861). Both branch mints handled only gold coins.TR*317527
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1852
- mint
- U.S. Mint, Charlotte
- ID Number
- NU*255927.0112
- catalog number
- NU85579
- accession number
- 255927
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
United States, One Dollar, 1856
- Description
- United States Mint, Philadelphia. Obverse: Liberty with feather headdress, facing left. Reverse: Denomination and date within cereal wreath. James B. Longacre's second attempt at designing a gold dollar proved unsatisfactory. His concept had featured a head in fairly high relief, and it soon became apparent that the design did not wear well, and that high relief on one side meant an indistinct strike on the other.
- So the Longacre went back to the drawing board and came up with yet a third design, copying the new head from the one he had placed on the three dollar piece two years before. This design wore much better. It was retained for the remaining years of production of gold dollars until 1889. Fewer than ten proof gold dollars are known for 1856.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1856
- mint
- U.S. Mint, Philadelphia
- ID Number
- NU*283645.0320
- accession number
- 283645
- catalog number
- 68.159.0439
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
United States, Two and a Half Dollars, Proof, 1856
- Description
- United States Mint, Philadelphia. Obverse: Liberty with feather headdress, facing left. Reverse: Denomination and date within cereal wreath. Numismatist Walter Breen listed two proofs of this coin for this year. Apparently, he missed this one.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1856
- mint
- U.S. Mint, Philadelphia
- ID Number
- NU*283645.0325
- accession number
- 283645
- catalog number
- 68.159.0078
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Kellogg & Co., 50 Dollars, 1855
- Description
- Kellogg & Co. was one of the last private coiners to appear in San Francisco, but its double eagles were well made and well engraved. One of those responsible for the artwork was Ferdinand Gruner, another Central European emigre who may have also been responsible for some of the fractional gold coinage of the decade of the 1850s.
- Kellogg & Co. was an offshoot of a larger firm, Moffat & Co. John Glover Kellogg had served as Moffat's cashier, while the other principal, G. F. Richter, had been its assayer.
- Perhaps emboldened by public acceptance of their twenty-dollar coins, Kellogg & Co. put plans into motion to produce a fifty-dollar piece. Eleven coins, all proofs, survive to bear testimony to this idea. But no business strikes resulted, even though a competitor, Wass, Molitor & Co., did succeed in circulating such pieces during that same year.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1855
- mint
- Kellogg and Company
- ID Number
- NU*283645.1084
- accession number
- 283645
- catalog number
- 68.159.1149
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
$1.00 from The Dayton Bank
- Description
- Mr. Dayton is known to history solely by the currency he had printed for his bank, and it is not known whether the bank ever opened its doors. But it was his bank, and he had the right, so his grim visage, complete with imposing widow's peak, graces each of the three known denominations: one-, two-, and five-dollar bills.
- The Dayton Bank was one of thousands of private issuers, supplying the capital that created the economic miracle of 19th-century America. No government dared issue paper money in those days: Americans had been so badly burned by inflation during one crisis (the Revolutionary War), that they would not countenance another public issue until another crisis (the Civil War).
- The imagery on this note is very typical of that found in this period, especially on issues from western banks. Racial and ethnic stereotypes were prevalent and emphasized the dominance of white culture.
- Date made
- 1853
- referenced
- Dayton Bank
- maker
- Danforth, Wright & Co.
- ID Number
- NU*233479.0001
- catalog number
- NU 62181
- accession number
- 233479
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
United States, Five Dollars, 1854-S
- Description
- The mint struck eagles and double eagles in some quantity (about 124,000 and 141,000, respectively). But it only minted a handful of quarter eagles (less than 250), and hardly more half eagles. The piece shown here is arguably the finest known. San Francisco expanded production in the next few years, adding silver coinage to the gold, and gradually assumed its position as a major producer of the nation's money.
- Made of California gold, this rare coin was one of the first produced at the U.S. Mint branch in San Francisco. The mintmark, "S," is stamped on the reverse. California gold initially had to be shipped for coining to the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia, an expensive, slow, and risky undertaking. Meanwhile, private mints made coins that could be used in local markets. With the opening of the San Francisco Mint in 1854, gold could be converted quickly and efficiently into U.S. legal tender.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1854
- issuing authority
- U.S. Mint, San Francisco
- ID Number
- NU*283645.0272
- accession number
- 283645
- catalog number
- 68.159.0210
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Nicholas I Death Medal, Jeton
- Description
- This jeton or medal was struck to honor of the death of Tsar Nicholas I who died on March 2, 1855. Death medals were struck to preserve the image and memory of a deceased ruler.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1855
- ID Number
- NU*66.288.22
- catalog number
- 66.288.22
- accession number
- 270424
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center