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, New York, Copper Pattern, 1787
- Description
- Produced at a private mint, either in New York City or Rahway Mills, New Jersey. Obverse: Portrait of New York Governor George Clinton. Reverse: Arms of New York state, date below. Struck for the same purposes as the Indian/New York arms copper, the Clinton variety had no greater success. Eight to ten specimens including this one are known.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1787
- ID Number
- 1991.0009.0133
- catalog number
- 1991.0009.0133
- accession number
- 1991.0009
- catalog number
- 91.9.133
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
United States, New York, Copper Pattern, 1787
- Description
- Produced at a private mint, either in New York City or Rahway Mills, New Jersey. Obverse: Standing Indian with bow and tomahawk. Reverse: Arms of New York State, date below. In common with several other states (who enjoyed the power to coin or circulate money under the Articles of Confederation, then still in force) New York mulled over the idea of a contract coinage. One of the prominent players was James F. Atlee, who created this pattern for his friend Thomas Machin. The latter was in hot pursuit of a contract to strike copper coinage for the state of New York. Machin did not receive the contract. However, he and his friend Atlee soon established a clandestine coining operation near Newburgh, New York. A dozen or so patterns are all that remain from the original idea.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1787
- ID Number
- 1991.0009.0134
- catalog number
- 1991.0009.0134
- accession number
- 1991.0009
- catalog number
- 91.9.134
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
United States, New York Gold Pattern, 1785 (Immune Columbia)
- Description
- Produced at George Wyon's private mint, Birmingham, England. Obverse: Seated figure of Columbia with scales of justice and a Liberty cap, date below. Reverse: All-seeing Eye in a glory with stars, CONSTELLATIO NOVA around. This pattern accompanied a proposed contract coinage to be made in England and shipped to America. This version never went any farther, perhaps in part because the obverse die for this pattern contained a major blunder: the first word should have been IMMUNIS, not IMMUNE. A few pieces were struck in copper, and this one (using an English guinea as a blank) in gold. Such contract proposals continued through the early 1790s, but they never bore fruit. Congress concluded that it was simply too dangerous to entrust producing America's money to a foreign source.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1785
- maker
- Wyon III, George
- obverse engraver
- Wyon III, George
- reverse engraver
- Wyon III, George
- ID Number
- 1988.0063.0060
- catalog number
- 1988.0063.0060
- accession number
- 1988.0063
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
United States, Half Doubloon, 1787
- Description
- Produced by Ephraim Brasher in New York City. Obverse: Sun rising over mountains; BRASHER below. Reverse: Crude eagle within continuous wreath; EB countermark on eagle's wing. Its existence apparently unknown until the beginning of the twentieth century, this unique coin was struck with the same pair of dies used to create the Brasher Doubloon.
- Ephraim Brasher was a goldsmith, and his EB countermark also appeared on foreign gold coins of the day. It proclaimed that he had tested or assayed them and stood behind them.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1787
- obverse designer
- Ephraim Brasher
- reverse designer
- Ephraim Brasher
- obverse engraver
- Ephraim Brasher
- reverse engraver
- Ephraim Brasher
- ID Number
- NU*283645.0001
- accession number
- 283645
- catalog number
- 68.159.1111
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Brasher Doubloon, 1787
- Description
- The Brasher Doubloon is one of the most enigmatic coins in American numismatic history. We know when it was minted, who minted it, and approximately how many pieces were minted. But why was the coin minted? What were the intentions of its creator, Ephraim Brasher? Did he seek to render a public service, providing a new gold coin based on an old model: the onza, or doubloon of Spanish America?
- Or was Brasher, an assayer and goldsmith, after a contract to provide copper coinage-minting and distributing these gold pieces to influence state legislators? We don't know. What we do know is that only seven of these doubloons are recorded. And if Brasher were angling for a contract to strike copper, he was singularly unsuccessful.
- Why were states issuing coining contracts anyhow? State-sponsored coinage was a natural outgrowth of the extreme federalism of the United States' first constitution, the Articles of Confederation. Under its statutes, individual states were sovereign entities, enjoying the right to issue coinage and "bills of credit," or currency.
- A number of states (and Vermont, which was a separate country at the time) did both. New York was indecisive. The adoption of the U.S. Constitution in 1789 put an end to state coinages, and to the aspirations of people like Ephraim Brasher.
- Soon there would be a new, national coinage in copper, silver, and gold, and private issues would no longer be needed-or so it was assumed.
- Date made
- 1787
- designer
- Brasher, Ephraim
- engraver
- Brasher, Ephraim
- maker
- Brasher, Ephraim
- ID Number
- 1988.0063.0070
- accession number
- 1988.0063
- catalog number
- 1988.0063.0070
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center