Coins, Currency, and Medals - Overview
The Museum possesses one of the largest numismatic collections in the world. The collections include over 1 million objects, comprising coins, medals, decorations, and pieces of paper money. Among the many great rarities here are some of the world’s oldest coins, created 2,700 years ago. But the collection also includes the latest innovations in electronic monetary exchange, as well as beads, wampum, and other commodities once used as money. A special strength lies in artifacts that illustrate the development of money and medals in the United States. The American section includes many rare and significant coins, such as two of three known examples of the world's most valuable coin, the 1933 double eagle $20 gold piece.
"Coins, Currency, and Medals - Overview" showing 23 items.
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United States, Ten Dollars, 1930 S
- Description
- United States Mint, San Francisco. Obverse: Head of Liberty facing left, with feathered headdress; stars above, date below. Reverse: Standing eagle facing left. Most of the run was melted. This is one of the finest survivors.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1930
- designer
- Saint-Gaudens, Augustus
- mint
- U.S. Mint, San Francisco
- ID Number
- 1985.0441.1588
- accession number
- 1985.0441
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
United States, Five Dollars, 1849 (Massachusetts and California Co.)
- Description
- Probably produced by the Massachusetts & California Company's mint in Northampton, Massachusetts. Obverse: Shield with vaquero (cowboy) throwing lasso, bear and stag supporters. Reverse: Denomination within wreath, date below. The Massachusetts & California Company shipped coining equipment to California in the spring of 1849. The shipment was lost, but it appears that a few coins such as this one were produced as samples in Massachusetts, reminders of a project that never came to fruition.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1849
- maker
- Massachusetts and California Co.
- ID Number
- 1985.0441.2203
- catalog number
- 1985.0441.2203
- accession number
- 1985.0441
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
United States, Twenty Dollars, 1849
- Description
- Moffat & Company's mint, San Francisco. Obverse: Eagle with shield, fineness above. Reverse: Engine-turning with name and date in center. This was the final production of the provisional United States operation in San Francisco. A formal branch U.S. Mint was set up soon and began operations in the spring of 1854. A few proof strikes of the 1853 double eagle are known, including this coin.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1853
- mint
- U.S. Assay Office
- ID Number
- 1985.0551.0720
- catalog number
- 1985.0551.0720
- accession number
- 1985.0551
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
United States, Twenty Dollars, 1853 (California-Moffat & Co.)
- Description
- Produced at Moffat & Company's mint, San Francisco, California. Obverse: Liberty head, stars around, date below. Reverse: Eagle, denomination. Obverse and reverse designs bear a close and deliberate similarity to those used on the "official" double eagle of the same period produced by the U.S. Mint for regular circulating coins.
- Moffat & Company was a major player in the production of California private gold coinage. It was closely connected with Augustus Humbert and the fifty-dollar "slugs" of the United States Assay Office of Gold in San Francisco. Humbert did the assaying and Moffat did the coining. This 1853 double eagle is one of the last coins struck by this prolific California pioneer coiner. It was minted in the late summer or early autumn of 1853.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1853
- maker
- Moffat & Company
- ID Number
- 1991.0009.0990
- catalog number
- 1991.0009.0990
- accession number
- 1991.0009
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
United States, Five Dollars, 1849 (California- J.S.Ormsby)
- Description
- Produced by J.S. Ormsby & Company in San Francisco, California. Obverse: J.S.O. in center. Reverse: 5/DOLLS surrounded by stars. The Ormsby operation got underway in the autumn of 1849. The venture was not a success. The coins that were struck were crude and not worth their face value in metal. Most of them were melted down in short order. Two denominations were struck, evidently by means of a sledgehammer. Five ten-dollar pieces are known from this company. This is the only five-dollar piece known.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1849
- maker
- J.S. Ormsby
- ID Number
- 1993.0531.0001
- accession number
- 1993.0531
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
United States, $20 (California--private issue)
- Description
- Twenty dollars, n.d. Diana Gambling House (?), San Francisco. Gold. 34 mm.
- This piece is likely to be a modern fantasy from the mid-twentieth century. Fantasy pieces can take advantage of an intense enthusiasm for material related to the old West, the California Gold Rush, and the pioneer spirit in search of the American Dream.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- ID Number
- NU*283645.1074
- accession number
- 283645
- catalog number
- 68.159.1125
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Kellogg & Co., 50 Dollars, 1855
- Description
- Kellogg & Co. was one of the last private coiners to appear in San Francisco, but its double eagles were well made and well engraved. One of those responsible for the artwork was Ferdinand Gruner, another Central European emigre who may have also been responsible for some of the fractional gold coinage of the decade of the 1850s.
- Kellogg & Co. was an offshoot of a larger firm, Moffat & Co. John Glover Kellogg had served as Moffat's cashier, while the other principal, G. F. Richter, had been its assayer.
- Perhaps emboldened by public acceptance of their twenty-dollar coins, Kellogg & Co. put plans into motion to produce a fifty-dollar piece. Eleven coins, all proofs, survive to bear testimony to this idea. But no business strikes resulted, even though a competitor, Wass, Molitor & Co., did succeed in circulating such pieces during that same year.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1855
- mint
- Kellogg and Company
- ID Number
- NU*283645.1084
- accession number
- 283645
- catalog number
- 68.159.1149
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
United States, 50 Dollars, Panama-Pacific Exposition Commemorative, 1915 (octagonal)
- Description
- United States Mint, San Francisco. Obverse: Bust of Liberty as goddess Athena facing left. She wears a crested helmet and carries a shield with the date 1915 in Roman numerals. Reverse: Owl seated on pine bough (the owl was the bird associated with Athena). On this octagonal version, there are eight small dolphins at the eight points of the octagon. Designed by Robert Aitken, these coins were part of an elaborate attempt to raise money for the Panama-Pacific Exposition, held in San Francisco between February and December 1915. In turn, the exposition was intended to celebrate the completion and opening of the Panama Canal in the previous year. The dolphins were on both sides of this octagonal version because they were friendly companions of the vessels making the trip from one ocean to another, via the new Isthmian waterway.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1915
- maker
- U.S. Mint, San Francisco
- ID Number
- 1979.1263.01162
- catalog number
- 1979.1263.01162
- accession number
- 1979.1263
- catalog number
- 01338
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
United States, Fifty Dollars, Panama-Pacific Exposition Commemorative, 1915 S
- Description
- United States Mint, San Francisco. Obverse: Bust of Liberty as goddess Athena facing left. She wears a crested helmet and carries a shield with the date 1915 in Roman numerals. Reverse: Owl seated on pine bough (the owl was the bird associated with Athena). On the octagonal version, there are eight small dolphins at the eight points of the octagon.
- Designed by Robert Aitken, the round and octagonal coins were part of an elaborate attempt to raise money for the Panama-Pacific Exposition. That celebration was held in San Francisco between February and December, 1915. In turn, the exposition was intended to commemorate the completion and opening of the Panama Canal in the previous year. Dolphins were friendly companions of the vessels making the trip from one ocean to another, via the new Isthmian waterway.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1915
- mint
- U.S. Mint, San Francisco
- ID Number
- 1985.0551.0777
- catalog number
- 1985.0551.0777
- accession number
- 1985.0551
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
United States, Two and a Half Dollars, Panama-Pacific Exposition Commemorative, Proof, 1915 S
- Description
- United States Mint, San Francisco. Obverse: Columbia, seated on a hippocampus, or sea horse. Reverse: Eagle facing left on what appears to be a Roman legionary standard. This and several other commemorative pieces were created at the San Francisco Mint to celebrate the opening of the Panama Canal and the exposition held in its honor. This Smithsonian specimen is the only known proof.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1915
- mint
- U.S. Mint, San Francisco
- ID Number
- 1985.0551.0780
- catalog number
- 1985.0551.0780
- accession number
- 1985.0551
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center