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 3 items.
Portrait Medal of James Smithson
- Description
- James Smithson was born in 1765, the illegitimate son of Sir Hugh Smithson, later known as Sir Hugh Percy, Baronet, 1st Duke of Northumberland, K.G., and Elizabeth Hungerford Keate. Elizabeth Keate had been married to James Macie, and so Smithson first bore the name of James Lewis Macie.
- His mother later married Mark Dickinson, by whom she had another son. When she died in 1800, he and his half-brother inherited a sizable estate. He changed his name at this time from Macie to Smithson. James Smithson died June 27, 1829, in Genoa, Italy. His will left his fortune to his nephew, son of his half-brother, but stipulated that if that nephew died without children (legitimate or illegitimate), the money should go "to the United States of America, to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men."
- The nephew, Henry Hungerford Dickinson, died without heirs in 1835, and Smithson's bequest was accepted in 1836 by the United States Congress. Smithson never visited the United States, and the reason for his generous bequest is unknown. But his gift was the foundation grant for the Smithsonian Institution.
- In 1817, while living in Genoa, Italy, Smithson commissioned a gifted Italian sculptor named Antonio Canova to create his portrait in the form of this medal. Smithson evidently approved of Canova's efforts: he scratched his name on the other, otherwise blank side of his medal. It is still visible today, very faint after the passage of nearly two centuries.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1817
- maker
- Paris Mint
- obverse engraver
- Tiolier, Nicholas P.
- ID Number
- 1991.0009.0393
- catalog number
- 1991.0009.0393
- accession number
- 1991.0009
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
United States, Jefferson Indian Peace Medal, 1801
- Description
- United States Mint, Philadelphia. Obverse: Bust of Thomas Jefferson facing left. Reverse: Clasped hands, crossed peace pipe and hatchet above; PEACE/AND/FRIENDSHIP. This medal is hollow, consisting of two thin, embossed silver plates, one for each side of the medal. The two were held together by a silver ring, running around the entire circumference of the piece. The medal was created in this fashion because the United States Mint lacked a coining press strong enough to strike heavy, solid medals. This medal accompanied Lewis and Clark on their epochal journey West.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1801
- mint
- U.S. Mint, Philadelphia
- obverse engraver
- Scot, Robert
- reverse engraver
- Scot, Robert
- ID Number
- 1990.0466.0001
- catalog number
- 1990.0466.0001
- accession number
- 1990.0466
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Roosevelt Inaugural Medal, 1905
- Description
- Theodore Roosevelt met sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens in the 1890s, when T.R. was an aspiring young politician, and Saint-Gaudens was establishing a reputation as a brilliant artist. When Roosevelt was elected President in 1904 and needed an inaugural medal, he gave the commission to Saint-Gaudens after rejecting the standard, unmemorable medal typically produced for this occasion by the United States Mint.
- Saint-Gaudens's results shattered precedent. The piece was modern in all senses of the word. There was no attempt to beautify or romanticize the President's head on the obverse, yet the image clearly conveyed vision and power. The reverse was, if anything, even more groundbreaking. The magnificent, left-facing eagle epitomized authority and presence, while displaying a classical ancient style. (The same eagle is used on the Saint-Gaudens $10 in 1907). This bird unquestionably ruled all it surveyed.
- Saint-Gaudens's success with this medal convinced Roosevelt that the artist was the partner he needed to collaborate on a pet project: the redesign of America's money. Saint-Gaudens signed on, and the plotting began. But the potential for trouble hovered on the horizon: this medal had been struck, not by the United States Mint in Philadelphia, but by Tiffany & Company in New York. If the Mint hadn't produced Saint-Gaudens's medal, would it agree to produce any of his coins?
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1905-03-05
- associated date
- 1905-03-05
- associated person
- Roosevelt, Theodore
- Saint-Gaudens, Augustus
- Weinman, Adolph A.
- maker
- Tiffany & Company
- designer
- Saint-Gaudens, Augustus
- ID Number
- 2005.0142.02
- accession number
- 2005.0142
- catalog number
- 2005.0142.02
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center