This Flowing Hair Liberty plaster model, designed by U.S. Mint Chief Engraver Frank Gasparro, is an enlarged prototype for the "new mini dollar" of 1978. Gasparro's allegorical Liberty displays a free-spirited young woman similar to the design of Benjamin Franklin's Libertas Americana Medal in 1783 and the cents of 1793—1808. Although the Flowing Hair Dollar design was Gasparro's first choice for the new dollar coin, Congress rejected this design.
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