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 5 items.
United States, 20 Dollars, 1926-D
- Description
- United States Mint, Denver. Obverse: Liberty striding towards the viewer, bearing olive branch and torch. Reverse: Eagle in flight above the sun. This is one of a fairly small number of survivors of these coins. It is in exceptional condition.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1926
- mint
- U.S. Mint, Denver
- maker
- Saint-Gaudens, Augustus
- ID Number
- 1985.0441.1505
- catalog number
- 1985.0441.1505
- accession number
- 1985.0441
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
United States, Twenty Dollars, 1927 D
- Description
- United States Mint, Denver. Obverse: Liberty striding towards the viewer, bearing olive branch and torch. Reverse: Eagle in flight above the sun. Of the approximately ten known survivors, three are in the Smithsonian Institution collection.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1927
- mint
- U.S. Mint, Denver
- ID Number
- 1985.0441.1523
- catalog number
- 1985.0441.1523
- accession number
- 1985.0441
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
United States, 20 Dollars, 1927
- Description
- Numismatic legends can be contrived, or they can be accidental-objects that never started as legends but became legendary due to unforeseen circumstances. Perhaps all but a few members of a given mintage were destroyed, or hoarded in unsettled times and never recovered. Under these circumstances, legendary status will be acquired years after the actual creation of the object.
- America's numismatic story embraces a number of accidental legends, but none, perhaps, is more fascinating than a double eagle, struck in Denver in 1927. When the 1927 Denver twenty-dollar gold piece was minted, there was absolutely nothing exceptional about the coin, or the circumstances of its creation.
- The United States was firmly on the gold standard. Gold was still being mined in Alaska and the West, and the United States branch mints at Denver and San Francisco were expected to turn the yellow metal into gold coins, which they did. That year saw Denver producing 180,000 double eagles-a decline from the figure for previous years, but a perfectly acceptable mintage.
- If matters had remained as they were when the coins were struck, they never would have become legendary. But matters did not remain the same. An economic downturn at the end of the 1920s turned into an economic collapse by the beginning of the 1930s; and a new President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, decided to take the country off the gold standard as one more way of combating the Depression.
- Under the circumstances, most gold coins were called in and melted. Provisions were made for exempting collectibles, but few people thought of the recent gold issues as collectibles. So virtually all were turned in, the 1927 Denver double eagles along with the rest. And a once reasonably common twenty-dollar coin from Denver acquired legendary status. At present, this is one of fewer than a dozen that are known.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1927
- mint
- U.S. Mint, Denver
- artist
- Saint-Gaudens, Augustus
- ID Number
- 1984.1046.0812
- catalog number
- 1984.1046.0812
- accession number
- 1984.1046
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
United States, Twenty Dollars, 1927 D
- Description
- United States Mint, Denver. Obverse: Liberty striding towards the viewer, bearing olive branch and torch. Reverse: Eagle in flight above the sun. Of the approximately ten known survivors, this is one of three in the National numismatic Collection.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1927
- mint
- U.S. Mint, Denver
- ID Number
- NU*283645.0999
- accession number
- 283645
- catalog number
- 68.159.0391
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
United States, Twenty Dollars, 1931 D
- Description
- United States Mint, Denver. Obverse: Liberty striding towards the viewer, bearing olive branch and torch. Reverse: Eagle in flight above the sun.
- As many as three dozen may have survived, a huge number by the standards of the day which saw most gold coins melted. However, few specimens match the Smithsonian's specimen in terms of condition.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1931
- mint
- U.S. Mint, Denver
- ID Number
- NU*283645.1008
- accession number
- 283645
- catalog number
- 68.159.0396
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center