National Numismatic Collection - Online Exhibitions
Where Money and History Meet
Learn more about the National Numismatic Collection (NNC) through online exhibitions about topics such as: Byzantium; the coinage of Spain; he Double Eagle; life in Ancient Greece; the Coins of the Demareteion Master; outstanding U.S. rarities; Russian coins and medals; Native Americans, women, and African–Americans on early United States bank notes; and the evolution of American money.
Legendary Coins & Currency
This exhibition explores rare and historically significant artifacts from the National Numismatic Collection—more than half of which have never been on view, or not for many years. Coins, bills, medals, and captivating oddities—such as pattern designs, fake coins, and homemade clam shell money from the Great Depression—are on display.
"National Numismatic Collection - Online Exhibitions" showing 9 items.
United States, Ten Dollars, 1798
- Description
- United States Mint, Philadelphia. Obverse: Capped bust of Liberty facing right, seven stars behind her head and six stars before; date below. Reverse: Heraldic eagle, stars and clouds above. Early eagles had numerous variations in the number and placement of obverse and reverse stars, details on the federal shield, and the date. This piece (with thirteen stars and a 1797 die redated to 1798) is one of the rarer varieties. About a dozen specimens are known including this one in the National Numismatic Collection.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1798
- mint
- U.S. Mint, Philadelphia
- ID Number
- NU*283645.0018
- accession number
- 283645
- catalog number
- 68.159.0267
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
United States, Five Dollars, 1797
- Description
- United States Mint, Philadelphia. Obverse: Capped bust of Liberty facing right, ten stars behind her head and six stars before; date below. Reverse: Heraldic eagle, clouds and stars above. Although dated 1797, this coin was probably minted in the following year. Early United States coins do not always bear the year in which they were struck. The annual visit of yellow fever to Philadelphia, and to the U.S. Mint there, imparted a disjointed quality to our early numismatics.
- What is definitely known is that Robert Scot was responsible for the designs. His new, bellicose eagle is a direct reflection of increased national tensions with the British and French. This particular coin is unique.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1797
- mint
- U.S. Mint, Philadelphia
- ID Number
- NU*283645.0010
- accession number
- 283645
- catalog number
- 68.159.0158
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
United States, Ten Cents, Pattern, 1792
- Description
- United States Mint, Philadelphia. Obverse: Liberty head left, with unbound hair; date below. Reverse: Small eagle, DISME below. The term "disme" was the original choice of the name for a tenth of a dollar. It was probably pronounced "deem."
- Adam Eckfeldt created the obverse die. William Birch was likely responsible for the reverse die. Henry Voigt did the actual coining. This activity was taking place in a completed section of the new United States Mint. The workers were constructing the rest of the building!
- This piece is one of a dozen of these patterns known.
- [reference no. Judd 1792]
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1792
- mint
- U.S. Mint, Philadelphia
- ID Number
- 1991.0357.0122
- catalog number
- 1991.0357.0122
- accession number
- 1991.0357
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
United States, Half Dollar, Pattern, 1792
- Description
- Produced by Peter Getz at a temporary mint in Philadelphia. Obverse: Bust of George Washington in uniform, date below. Reverse: Eagle, stars above. Peter Getz created the dies for these and several other pieces, basing his designs on two British copper proposals of 1791. The United States lacked a mint, and so the Getz pieces were struck in the coach house of John Harper, a metallurgical expert then resident in Philadelphia. Only a few specimens including this piece survive in silver. There are handful more in copper. The scheme for adopting this design came to naught when President Washington declined the honor of appearance on American coinage. Apparently, Washington preferred a depiction of Liberty on the national coinage rather than a portrait of himself.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1792
- issuing authority
- Getz, Peter
- moneyer
- Getz, Peter
- obverse designer
- Getz, Peter
- reverse designer
- Getz, Peter
- ID Number
- 1993.0532.0002
- catalog number
- 1993.0532.0002
- accession number
- 1993.0532
- catalog number
- 93.532.02
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
United States, Copper Cent, Pattern, 1792
- Description
- United States Mint, Philadelphia. Obverse: Head of Liberty with flowing hair facing right, date below. Reverse: Denomination in wreath, fraction (1/100) below. This design has been traditionally ascribed to a British artist named William Russell Birch. Patterns with these designs were struck towards the end of 1792. By the time the cent entered formal production, however, its weight and size had been reduced, and another artist was brought in to design the coin.
- [reference no. Judd 4]
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1792
- maker
- U.S. Mint
- ID Number
- 1993.0532.0001
- accession number
- 1993.0532
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
United States, Copper Cent, Pattern, 1792
- Description
- United States Mint, Philadelphia. Obverse: Head of Liberty facing right, unbound hair; date below. Reverse: Value within wreath, fraction (1/100) below. The silver center cent pattern was an attempt to create a cent worth its stated denomination, while doing away with a large, heavy copper coin. The silver plug was inserted to raise the intrinsic value.
- Henry Voigt cut the dies. About a dozen of these coins are known to have been produced. The experiment was abandoned, probably due to the difficulty of manufacture. [reference no. Judd 1]
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1792
- mint
- U.S. Mint, Philadelphia
- ID Number
- 1981.1022.0001
- catalog number
- 81.55.1
- accession number
- 1981.1022
- catalog number
- 1981.1022.0001
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
United States, Twenty-Five Cents, Pattern, 1792
- Description
- United States Mint, Philadelphia. Obverse: Head of Liberty facing right, hair bound, date below. Reverse: Eagle standing on globe, head turned back. It is very likely that this was a pattern intended for consideration as a quarter dollar, although some have seen it as an idea for a half eagle. The latter is unlikely, but the size is about right for the ten-dollar piece, or eagle. Joseph Wright designed this pattern. Two specimens are known in copper including this one and two more in white metal.
- [reference no. Judd 12]
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1792
- obverse designer
- Droz, J. P.
- mint
- U.S. Mint, Philadelphia
- reverse designer
- Droz, J. P.
- ID Number
- 1991.0357.0121
- accession number
- 1991.0357
- catalog number
- 1991.0357.0121
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Copper Pattern Dollar, 1794
- Description
- Once a new national government had been established under a new Constitution, attention naturally turned to ways of proclaiming national identity. A new, national coinage was one way of doing so, especially if it featured patriotic new images, rather than the endless sequence of crowned monarchs and coats of arms adorning the coinage of Old Europe.
- A U. S Mint Act was passed in 1792, and work was quickly underway. Designs were chosen-a depiction of Liberty for obverses, an eagle, or the value within a wreath, for reverses. The first of the new coins, copper cents and half cents, appeared early the following year. By 1794, mint designers were working to create a silver dollar, the flagship of the new denominations. But they first made a trial piece, in copper.
- Robert Scot created the dies for this design, a Liberty head with flowing hair for the dollar's obverse; an eagle within a simple wreath for the reverse. The new dies to be used in producing silver dollars were tested with a striking in copper. Copper would took a good impression, and would allow Scot and his associates to see whether the dies were cut deeply enough and would therefore be capable of producing the detail wanted on the final silver product.
- Only one piece, this coin, was struck in copper, and it is a unique national treasure.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1794
- mint
- U.S. Mint, Philadelphia
- designer
- Scot, Robert
- ID Number
- 1987.0910.0001
- accession number
- 1987.0910
- catalog number
- 1987.0910.0001
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1.00 Dollar, Flowing Hair Dollar, 1794
- Description
- The first silver dollars-and the first silver half dollars-were delivered on the same day, October 15, 1794. Chief coiner Henry Voigt was responsible for 5,300 half dollars that day, and they apparently went into commerce as soon as they were released.
- The dollars were another matter. Precisely 1,758 of them were coined on the fifteenth, and they were immediately delivered to Mint Director David Rittenhouse for distribution to dignitaries as souvenirs.
- The VIPs were not impressed with what they saw. The dollars were struck on the largest press the mint possessed, but the machine was originally intended for cents and half dollars. The only way it had proved adequate for striking the copper pattern was by striking the piece twice.
- The impressions it gave with a single blow were weak, a situation not helped by the fact that the obverse die was damaged early on and had to be polished down along one part of its circumference. This resulted in its making an even weaker impression. So the new federal dollar was not a brilliant success. But it was a first-and sometimes that's success enough.
- Precisely 1,758 of these silver dollars, the first ever minted for circulation by the United States, were coined on October 15, 1794. All were immediately delivered to the Mint Director for distribution to dignitaries as souvenirs. The largest press the mint possessed still was not big enough to give a strong impression with a single blow, hence the weak relief on these coins.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1794
- mint
- U.S. Mint, Philadelphia
- obverse designer
- Scot, Robert
- reverse designer
- Scot, Robert
- ID Number
- 1979.1263.00334
- accession number
- 1979.1263
- catalog number
- 01510
- 1979.1263.00334
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center