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 390 items.
Page 7 of 39
United States, Twenty Dollars, 1930 S
- Description
- United States Mint, San Francisco. Obverse: Liberty striding towards the viewer, bearing olive branch and torch. Reverse: Eagle in flight above the sun. Only two dozen of these coins survive. The mintage was small to begin with--only 74,000 pieces--and virtually all of the production run went into the melting pot.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1930
- mint
- U.S. Mint, San Francisco
- ID Number
- 1985.0441.1587
- catalog number
- 1985.0441.1587
- accession number
- 1985.0441
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
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, Twenty Dollars, Pattern, 1860 (Paquet Reverse)
- Description
- United States Mint, Philadelphia. Designs as used on earlier double eagles, but with tall letters for legends on reverse. This unique pattern combined the normal obverse by James B. Longacre with an experimental reverse by Anthony C. Paquet. Paquet's innovation was to recast the letters in the reverse legend. Those letters had been block capitals on all earlier double eagles. Paquet intrtoduced a new, more vertical format for the letters.
- A few thousand coins with the Paquet reverse were minted in San Francisco at the beginning of 1861 (and a handful more at Philadelphia that same year). However, Paquet's innovation did not find favor at that time. [reference no. Judd 272a]
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1860
- mint
- U.S. Mint, Philadelphia
- ID Number
- 1985.0441.1927
- catalog number
- 1985.0441.1927
- accession number
- 1985.0441
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
United States, Five Dollars, Pattern, 1865
- Description
- United States Mint, Philadelphia. Obverse: Liberty head wearing coronet, date below. Reverse: Eagle, denomination below.
- This coin bears the motto IN GOD WE TRUST in the year before it was adopted for circulating coinage. Specialists refer to this piece as a Rarity-8 pattern by which they mean that only two or three are known. [reference no. Judd 445]
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1865
- mint
- U.S. Mint, Philadelphia
- ID Number
- 1985.0441.1941
- catalog number
- 1985.0441.1941
- accession number
- 1985.0441
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
United States, Twenty Dollars, Pattern, 1865
- Description
- United States Mint, Philadelphia. Obverse: Liberty head with coronet left, date below. Reverse: Eagle above, denomination below. This is another transitional pattern. The new element is the motto which would appear on circulating coinage the following year.
- [reference no. Judd 452]
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1865
- mint
- U.S. Mint, Philadelphia
- ID Number
- 1985.0441.1942
- catalog number
- 1985.0441.1942
- accession number
- 1985.0441
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
United States, One Dollar, Pattern, 1873
- Description
- United States Mint, Philadelphia. Obverse: Bellicose head of Liberty with braided and coiled hair facing left; stars around, date below. Reverse: Eagle with shield, TRADE DOLLAR below.
- Congress decided to create a trade dollar to promote the use of silver mined in the United States for commerce in Asia. This was an unsuccessful contestant for design consideration for a trade dollar. William Barber designed the reverse. J. A. Bailly was responsible for the obverse. Specialists assign this coin with a Rarity-4 status which means that between 76 and 200 are estimated to exist.
- [reference no. Judd 1281]
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1873
- mint
- U.S. Mint, Philadelphia
- ID Number
- 1985.0441.2005
- catalog number
- 1985.0441.2005
- accession number
- 1985.0441
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
United States, Ten Dollars, Pattern, 1874
- Description
- United States Mint, Philadelphia. Obverse: Head of Liberty, date below. Reverse: Inscription about the coin's weight and metallic fineness in center, domestic denomination and foreign equivalents in surrounding cartouches. This pattern was part of the drive towards a coin with the potential for easy international acceptance.
- A dozen or so are known in copper, a few others in other metals. They are called Bickford patterns after Dana Bickford, who proposed the convertibility idea.
- [reference no. Judd 1375]
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1874
- mint
- U.S. Mint, Philadelphia
- ID Number
- 1985.0441.2016
- accession number
- 1985.0441
- catalog number
- 1985.0441.2016
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
United States, Fifty Dollars, Pattern, 1877
- Description
- United States Mint, Philadelphia. Obverse: Liberty head with coronet facing left; stars around, date below. Reverse: Eagle with shield, denomination below. William Barber, father of famed U.S. Mint designer Charles E. Barber, was the designer here. Perhaps ten copper patterns from this combination of dies including this specimen are known.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1877
- obverse designer
- Barber, William
- reverse designer
- Barber, William
- mint
- U.S. Mint, Philadelphia
- ID Number
- 1985.0441.2017
- catalog number
- 1985.0441.2017
- accession number
- 1985.0441
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
United States, One Dollar, Pattern, 1879
- Description
- United States Mint, Philadelphia. Obverse: Young head of Liberty, facing right; date below. Reverse: Eagle, facing left; denomination below. The piece was designed by George T. Morgan, and, while no more successful than any of his other designs, stands in marked contrast to them. Because of the youthful appearance of the Liberty head, this pattern was dubbed the "Schoolgirl" dollar, perhaps as early as the 1890s. The pattern enjoys a rating of low Rarity-7 with perhaps a dozen known. Interestingly, the reverse design was resurrected nearly four decades later, placed on the quarter eagle commemorative coin struck for the Panama-Pacific Exposition.
- [reference no. Judd 1608]
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1879
- mint
- U.S. Mint, Philadelphia
- ID Number
- 1985.0441.2050
- catalog number
- 1985.0441.2050
- accession number
- 1985.0441
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
United States, Four Dollars, Pattern, 1879
- Description
- United States Mint, Philadelphia. Obverse: Liberty head with flowing hair, facing left; fineness around, date below. Reverse: Large star, denomination below. This is the most common of the Stella patterns. The term Stella comes from the Latin word for star that formed the design on the reverse. It is estimated that 425 examples of this pattern exist. [reference no. Judd 1635]
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1879
- mint
- U.S. Mint, Philadelphia
- ID Number
- 1985.0441.2057
- catalog number
- 1985.0441.2057
- accession number
- 1985.0441
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center