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 4 items.
United States, Jefferson Indian Peace Medal, 1801
- Description
- United States Mint, Philadelphia. Obverse: Bust of Thomas Jefferson facing left. Reverse: Clasped hands, crossed peace pipe and hatchet above; PEACE/AND/FRIENDSHIP. This medal is hollow, consisting of two thin, embossed silver plates, one for each side of the medal. The two were held together by a silver ring, running around the entire circumference of the piece. The medal was created in this fashion because the United States Mint lacked a coining press strong enough to strike heavy, solid medals. This medal accompanied Lewis and Clark on their epochal journey West.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1801
- mint
- U.S. Mint, Philadelphia
- obverse engraver
- Scot, Robert
- reverse engraver
- Scot, Robert
- ID Number
- 1990.0466.0001
- catalog number
- 1990.0466.0001
- accession number
- 1990.0466
- 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
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
United States, 1 Dollar, 1804 (Class Three)
- Description
- Employees at the Mint continued to strike 1804 dollars illegally through the late 1870s. It is thought that around half a dozen were created, some for sale, perhaps in European auctions, to give them an air of plausibility; others for trade, to acquire rare coins that the Mint Cabinet lacked. Six of these coins, called "class three" dollars, to distinguish them from the 1834 "class two" dollars, have been traced.
- The Smithsonian's class three 1804 dollar has a checkered history. It was initially the property of Mint Director H. R. Linderman and was probably struck to his order. However, when it appeared in his estate, his widow came up with the story that he bought it on time payments from a coin dealer.
- Eventually this coin was purchased by Willis DuPont. It was stolen in the 1967 armed robbery of the DuPont Collection and retrieved early in 1982. It came to the Smithsonian Institution in 1994. It exhibits the weak strike on the central devices shared by the other members of class three.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1804
- issuing authority
- United States Mint
- mint
- U.S. Mint, Philadelphia
- obverse designer
- Scot, Robert
- reverse designer
- Scot, Robert
- obverse engraver
- Eckstein, John
- reverse engraver
- Eckstein, John
- ID Number
- 1994.0391.0001
- catalog number
- 1994.0391.0001
- accession number
- 1994.0391
- catalog number
- 94.391.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center