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 112 items.
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Flowing Hair Liberty Dollar Plaster Galvano (Model)
- Description (Brief)
- 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.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1977
- artist
- Gasparro, Frank
- ID Number
- 2009.0005.001
- accession number
- 2009.0005
- catalog number
- 2009.0005.001
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Idea for the Reverse of the New Dollar
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1977
- artist
- Gasparro, Frank
- ID Number
- 2009.0005.002
- accession number
- 2009.0005
- catalog number
- 2009.0005.002
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Flowing Hair Liberty with Phrygian cap (liberty cap)
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1977
- artist
- Gasparro, Frank
- ID Number
- 2009.0005.003
- accession number
- 2009.0005
- catalog number
- 2009.0005.003
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Eleven Sided, Bronze Colored Galvano (Plaster Model)
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1977
- artist
- Gasparro, Frank
- ID Number
- 2009.0005.004
- catalog number
- 2009.0005.004
- accession number
- 2009.0005
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Round Bronze Colored Galvano (Plaster Model)
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1977
- artist
- Gasparro, Frank
- ID Number
- 2009.0005.005
- accession number
- 2009.0005
- catalog number
- 2009.0005.005
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Plaster Model of Dwight D. Eisenhower Dollar
- Description (Brief)
- When Gasparro was satisfied with his drawing for a new coin, he produced a version of the drawing in clay. Next, a plaster model, or galvano, was made using the clay version as a mold. When the Dwight D. Eisenhower dollar was manufactured in 1971, the Mint engraver used a plaster model on a lathe to scale the design down to coin size and reproduce the image onto a master hub. Today artists may still make plaster galvanoes to demonstrate their coin design in three dimensions, but the manufacture of the hub is done with computers. Images are scanned onto a computer, and software reduces the object and carves the hub.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1971
- artist
- Gasparro, Frank
- ID Number
- 2009.0005.006
- accession number
- 2009.0005
- catalog number
- 2009.0005.006
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Lincoln’s Birthplace
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1960
- artist
- Gasparro, Frank
- ID Number
- 2009.0005.007
- catalog number
- 2009.0005.007
- accession number
- 2009.0005
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Image Idea for Cent Adapted from the Great Seal of the United States
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1960
- artist
- Gasparro, Frank
- ID Number
- 2009.0005.008
- catalog number
- 2009.0005.008
- accession number
- 2009.0005
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Lincoln's Birthplace Cent (Reverse) Design
- Description (Brief)
- This drawing of Abraham Lincoln's birthplace was one of many designs made by Frank Gasparro in 1959 for the reverse image of the cent. The new coin was to honor the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth. From the many sketches and ideas offered, the Mint chose the now-famous image of the Lincoln Memorial, and it remained on the reverse of the cent for the next fifty years. To celebrate the 2009 bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth, four new designs were placed on the reverse of the cent. The design, called Birth and Early Childhood in Kentuckylooks very much like Gasparro's log cabin drawing done fifty years earlier.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1958
- artist
- Gasparro, Frank
- ID Number
- 2009.0005.009
- catalog number
- 2009.0005.009
- accession number
- 2009.0005
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Ear of Corn Cent (Reverse) Design
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1958
- artist
- Gasparro, Frank
- ID Number
- 2009.0005.010
- catalog number
- 2009.0005.010
- accession number
- 2009.0005
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
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