National Numismatic Collection - Introduction
The National Numismatic Collection (NNC) of the Smithsonian Institution is one of the largest numismatic collections in the world and the largest in North America. With over 1.6 millioin objects, the NNC contains many great rarities in coins and currency, from the earliest coins created 2,700 years ago up to the latest innovations in electronic monetary exchange, as well as fascinating objects such as beads, wampum, dentalia, and other commodities once used as money.
The collection emphasizes the development of money and medals in the United States. The core of the U.S. collection, consisting of more than 18,000 items, including coins of great rarity, came to the Smithsonian in 1923 from the United States Mint. Exceptional rarities include the Brasher half doubloon, the 1849 double eagle (first of the gold 20 dollar pieces), and two 1877 fifty dollar patterns. Other rarities are include the 1913 Liberty head nickel as well as all three types of the 1804 dollar, and two of three known examples of the world's most valuable coin, the 1933 double eagle, the third of which recently sold for 7.6 million dollars. Learn more about the collection.
Below you will find a selection of over 350 objects from the collection. We are working to expand and improve online access to additional objects in the near future, so stay tuned.
"National Numismatic Collection - Introduction" showing 16 items.
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Pismo Beach, California, 1 Dollar, 1933 (clamshell)
- Description
- When the Depression and resulting banking crisis hit their community, the residents of the coastal town of Pismo Beach, California picked an unusual but logical medium of exchange. The pismo is a species of clam with a very thick shell, then found in large numbers along the California coast and prized as a food.
- A town named after the bivalves suggests an adequate supply of their shells. Perhaps with tongue in cheek, the merchants and officials of Pismo Beach (who were often the same people) decided to make the best of a bad situation, and to make the humble clam shell into an object of trade. This they did. The Chamber of Commerce and no fewer than eleven merchants issued clamshell scrip.
- Each piece was numbered, and each piece was signed on the front and on the back. As with the stamp notes of the Midwest, it was necessary to sign each clamshell on the back in order to keep it in circulation. No formal requirements may have existed, but informal pressure certainly would have endorsed the practice.
- Restwell Cabins issued "notes" in three denominations: twenty-five cents, fifty cents, and one dollar. The larger the amount, the larger the shell. The issue may have been partly intended as a spoof, or for sale to tourists, in the manner of German notgeld around 1920. Redemption would never be a problem because collectors would want to keep these pieces in their cabinets or trade them with their friends.
- But it was also intended partly as a real, if unique, circulating medium. The Restwell Cabins issue bore the motto, "IN GOD WE TRUST." Each piece was numbered, and each was signed on the front and on the back. This specimen is dated March 8, 1933. This was in the middle of Roosevelt's national banking holiday, and it is exactly the time when we might expect to see people take money into their own hands.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- maker
- Restwell Cabins
- ID Number
- 1979.1263.00468
- accession number
- 1979.1263
- catalog number
- 1979.1263.00468
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Pismo Beach, California, 50 Cents, 1933 (clamshell)
- Description
- When the Great Depression and resulting banking crisis hit their community, the residents of the California coastal town of Pismo Beach picked an unusual but logical medium of exchange. The pismo is a species of clam with a very thick shell, then found in large numbers along the California coast and prized as a food.
- A town named after clams suggests an adequate supply of their shells. Perhaps with tongue in cheek, the merchants and officials of Pismo Beach (who were often the same people) decided to make the best of a bad situation, and to make the humble pismo shell into an object of trade. This they did. The Chamber of Commerce and no fewer than eleven merchants issued clamshell scrip. Restwell Cabins issued "notes" in three denominations: twenty-five cents, fifty cents, and one dollar.
- The larger the amount, the larger the shell. The issue may have been partly intended as a spoof, or for sale to tourists, in the manner of German notgeld around 1920. Redemption would never be a problem because collectors would wish to keep such pieces in their cabinets or trade them with their friends. But it was also intended partly as a real, if unique, circulating medium. The Restwell Cabins issue bore the motto, "IN GOD WE TRUST."
- Each piece was numbered, and each piece was signed on the front and on the back. As with the stamp notes of the Midwest, it was necessary to sign each clamshell on the back in order to keep it in circulation. No formal requirements may have existed, but informal pressure certainly would have endorsed the practice.
- This specimen is dated March 8, 1933. This was in the middle of Roosevelt's national banking holiday, and it is exactly the time when we might expect to see people take money into their own hands.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- maker
- Restwell Cabins
- ID Number
- 1979.1263.00472
- catalog number
- 1979.1263.00472
- accession number
- 1979.1263
- catalog number
- 79.112.OC102F
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
United States, $20 (California--private issue)
- Description
- Twenty dollars, n.d. Diana Gambling House (?), San Francisco. Gold. 34 mm.
- This piece is likely to be a modern fantasy from the mid-twentieth century. Fantasy pieces can take advantage of an intense enthusiasm for material related to the old West, the California Gold Rush, and the pioneer spirit in search of the American Dream.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- ID Number
- NU*283645.1074
- accession number
- 283645
- catalog number
- 68.159.1125
- 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
Kellogg & Co., 50 Dollars, 1855
- Description
- As early as 1850, agitation began in Congress for the establishment of a San Francisco branch of the United States Mint. This action was blocked by people from New York-who wanted a branch in their own state-and from Louisiana and Georgia-who argued that any California operation would represent unfair competition to the branch mints in New Orleans and Dahlonega.
- The opposition won, and San Francisco went without a branch mint for another four years. But it did get an odd sort of hybrid, the United States Assay Office of Gold, striking an odd sort of money-a gigantic-fifty-dollar ingot that also did duty as a coin.
- In addition to the Assay Office, other California coiners toyed with the idea of striking fifty-dollar gold pieces. One group, headed by J. G. Kellogg and G. F. Richter went so far as to have dies for circular slugs prepared and a dozen or so proofs struck from those dies.
- But by the time the project had gone forward that far, the federal branch Mint at San Francisco was finally coming into full production. Soon California private gold coinage, no matter how large or small the denominations, became irrelevant.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1855
- mint
- Kellogg and Company
- ID Number
- 1978.2507.0001
- catalog number
- 1978.2507.0001
- accession number
- 1978.2507
- catalog number
- 78.73.1
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
United States, Five Dollars, 1849 (Massachusetts and California Co.)
- Description
- Probably produced by the Massachusetts & California Company's mint in Northampton, Massachusetts. Obverse: Shield with vaquero (cowboy) throwing lasso, bear and stag supporters. Reverse: Denomination within wreath, date below. The Massachusetts & California Company shipped coining equipment to California in the spring of 1849. The shipment was lost, but it appears that a few coins such as this one were produced as samples in Massachusetts, reminders of a project that never came to fruition.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1849
- maker
- Massachusetts and California Co.
- ID Number
- 1985.0441.2203
- catalog number
- 1985.0441.2203
- accession number
- 1985.0441
- 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
U.S. Assay Office, 50 Dollars, 1851
- Description
- As early as 1850, agitation began in Congress for the establishment of a San Francisco branch of the United States Mint. This action was blocked by people from New York-who wanted a branch in their own state-and from Georgia and Louisiana-who argued that any California operation would represent unfair competition to the branch mints in Dahlonega and New Orleans.
- The opposition won, and San Francisco would go without a mint for another four years. But it did get an odd sort of hybrid, the United States Assay Office of Gold, striking an odd sort of money-a gigantic, fifty-dollar ingot that would also do duty as a coin. The arrangement was made by the Treasury Department under a contract with Moffat & Company, private assayers and gold coiners in San Francisco.
- Augustus Humbert came west to oversee the operation, which got under way at the end of January 1851. For most of the next two years, Humbert's fifty-dollar "slugs" were the principal accepted currency in California. He was eventually allowed to turn his attentions to the production of smaller, and altogether more useful, coins, ten- and twenty-dollar pieces. And his operation finally laid the framework for a formal, normal branch Mint, which began the production of ordinary federal coinage in the spring of 1854.
- Date made
- 1851
- mint
- U.S. Assay Office
- ID Number
- NU*283645.1280
- accession number
- 283645
- catalog number
- 68.159.1142
- 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, Fifty Dollars, Panama-Pacific Exposition Commemorative, 1915 S
- Description
- United States Mint, San Francisco. Obverse: Bust of Liberty as goddess Athena facing left. She wears a crested helmet and carries a shield with the date 1915 in Roman numerals. Reverse: Owl seated on pine bough (the owl was the bird associated with Athena). On the octagonal version, there are eight small dolphins at the eight points of the octagon.
- Designed by Robert Aitken, the round and octagonal coins were part of an elaborate attempt to raise money for the Panama-Pacific Exposition. That celebration was held in San Francisco between February and December, 1915. In turn, the exposition was intended to commemorate the completion and opening of the Panama Canal in the previous year. Dolphins were friendly companions of the vessels making the trip from one ocean to another, via the new Isthmian waterway.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1915
- mint
- U.S. Mint, San Francisco
- ID Number
- 1985.0551.0777
- catalog number
- 1985.0551.0777
- accession number
- 1985.0551
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center