Collections Search Results
Your search found 6127 records from National Museum of American History collection.
Page 307 of 307
-
- Description (Brief)
- One (1) 20 dollar coin
- United States, 1854
- Obverse Image: Liberty wearing a coronet and facing left. 13 stars around.
- Obverse Text: LIBERTY / 1854
- Reverse Image: Heraldic eagle with wings outstretched clutching arrows and branch in talons, shield over chest. Scrolls on either side of eagle, ring of 13 stars above eagle's head, rays of sun above stars.
- Reverse Text: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA / TWENTY D. / E PLURIBUS UNUM / O
- Description
- The 1854-O double eagle is one of the great classics of the Liberty Head series. Today, there are probably fewer than 35 examples known in all grades. Most of the 1854-O double eagles seen have graded just Very Fine or Extremely Fine. The 1854-O double eagle has always been in great demand, but with the recent interest in the field of double eagles, the 1854-O issue has become nearly priceless. Probably the finest example known was found in the wreckage of the S.S. Republic.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1854
- mint
- U.S. Mint, New Orleans
- designer
- Longacre, James Barton
- ID Number
- NU.68.159.0335
- accession number
- 283645
- catalog number
- 68.159.0335
-
- Description (Brief)
- One (1) pond coin
- South African Republic, 1902
- Obverse Image: Monogram.
- Obverse Text: ZAR / 1902
- Reverse Image: N/A
- Reverse Text: EEN POND
- Description
- The South African War (also known as the Second Boer War) between the British and the ancestors of European immigrants (Boers) living in the South African Republic, took place from 1899 to 1902. Toward the end of the war, the remaining fighters for the South African Republic fled into the countryside to a place called Pilgrim’s Rest. They melted down gold bars and gold nuggets and minted their own coins to assert their independence from the British. The fighters used old farm machinery and accessible chemicals to melt the gold down and make it pliable enough to shape into coins. Their hand-chiseled dies produced 968 coins, which are often referred to as “veldpond” because they were made in the South African veld (the Afrikaans word for field) and their denomination is one pond.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1902
- associated date
- 1902
- ID Number
- NU.68.159.5817
- catalog number
- 68.159.5817
- accession number
- 283645
-
- Description
- As early as 1850, agitation began in Congress for the establishment of a San Francisco branch of the United States Mint. This action was blocked by people from New York-who wanted a branch in their own state-and from Georgia and Louisiana-who argued that any California operation would represent unfair competition to the branch mints in Dahlonega and New Orleans.
- The opposition won, and San Francisco would go without a mint for another four years. But it did get an odd sort of hybrid, the United States Assay Office of Gold, striking an odd sort of money-a gigantic, fifty-dollar ingot that would also do duty as a coin. The arrangement was made by the Treasury Department under a contract with Moffat & Company, private assayers and gold coiners in San Francisco.
- Augustus Humbert came west to oversee the operation, which got under way at the end of January 1851. For most of the next two years, Humbert's fifty-dollar "slugs" were the principal accepted currency in California. He was eventually allowed to turn his attentions to the production of smaller, and altogether more useful, coins, ten- and twenty-dollar pieces. And his operation finally laid the framework for a formal, normal branch Mint, which began the production of ordinary federal coinage in the spring of 1854.
- date made
- 1851
- mint
- U.S. Assay Office
- ID Number
- NU.68.159.1142
- accession number
- 283645
- catalog number
- 68.159.1142
-
- Description (Brief)
- One (1) 2 1/2 dollar coin
- United States, 1848
- Obverse Image: Left facing Liberty with hair tied in a bun and wearing a coronet. 13 stars around.
- Obverse Text: LIBERTY / 1848
- Reverse Image: Eagle with wings outstretched clutching arrows and branch in talons, shield over chest.
- Reverse Text: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA / CAL. / 2 1/2 D.
- Description
- In 1848, the largest single gold rush in history was just getting under way in California. This event triggered a mass migration of fortune hunters from around the world. The territory had only recently passed into American hands as an outcome of U.S. victory in the Mexican War. The new California military governor Col. R. B. Mason sent 230 ounces of native bullion to the Secretary of War, who in turn passed the gold on to the Mint.
- Much of this first shipment went into large, honorific medals Congress authorized for the winning American generals in the war, Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott. Scott's medal is in the Smithsonian Collection. The rest of the gold was used to make "quarter eagles," or 2½ dollar gold pieces. These became some of the most legendary coins in American numismatic history.
- The basic design was standard: the head of Liberty was on one side, a somewhat bellicose eagle on the other. The mint had been striking quarter eagles with these designs for nearly a decade. But closer scrutiny showed that these coins had one odd feature: above the eagle on the reverse, the initials "CAL." These were added by means of a punch.
- Precisely 1,389 quarter eagles marked with the CAL stamp were made. Less than 200 still exist. They bear poignant witness to the colorful history of the American West.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1848
- mint
- U.S. Mint. Philadelphia
- designer
- Gobrecht, Christian
- ID Number
- NU.68.159.0072
- catalog number
- 68.159.0072
- accession number
- 283645
-
- Description (Brief)
- One (1) 2 1/2 dollar coin
- United States, Georgia, Templeton Reid, 1830
- Obverse Image: N/A
- Obverse Text: GEORGIA / GOLD / 1830
- Reverse Image: N/A
- Reverse Text: T. REID / ASSAYER / 2.50
- Description
- Before the famous California gold rush, several important strikes were made in the East: in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. The earliest took place in Mecklenburg County, N.C., in 1799, where a nugget weighing several pounds was discovered. Its finder used it as a doorstop until someone recognized it for what it was! Discoveries multiplied, and a federal branch Mint was eventually set up in Charlotte to process the metal into coinage.
- Discoveries in Georgia and North Carolina in the 1820s received wide publicity, and a "gold fever" resulted. Thousands of people began trekking to the areas in search of instant wealth. Most returned home empty-handed, but successful prospectors found millions of dollars' worth of precious metal. What should they do with their new wealth? Many felt the Philadelphia Mint was too far away for safe travel, and the government wasn't ready to create other coining facilities.
- A jack-of-all-trades named Templeton Reid had an answer: strike private gold coins, at a private mint. Reid had extensive experience as a watchmaker, gunsmith, and metalworker. In July 1830, he set up shop in the Georgia hamlet of Milledgeville, and began his brief career as private moneyer-the first since Ephraim Brasher.
- Reid struck about a thousand of the $2.50 denomination. As with the larger $10 and $5 dollar denominations, most were later melted down and re-coined by the U.S. Mint. We can trace fewer than twenty-five survivors, including this one.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1830
- maker
- Templeton Reid
- ID Number
- NU.68.159.1183
- accession number
- 283645
- catalog number
- 68.159.1183
-
- Description (Brief)
- One (1) 10 dollar coin
- United States, 1830
- Obverse Image: Denomination, maker's name.
- Obverse Text: TEN / DOLLARS / TEMPLETON / REID / ASSAYER
- Reverse Image: Text in a circle of stars.
- Reverse Text: GEORGIA / GOLD / 1830
- Description
- Before the famous California gold rush, several important strikes were made in the East: in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. The earliest took place in Mecklenburg County, N.C., in 1799, where a nugget weighing several pounds was discovered. Its finder used it as a doorstop until someone recognized it for what it was! Discoveries multiplied, and a federal branch Mint was eventually set up in Charlotte to process the metal into coinage.
- Discoveries in Georgia and North Carolina in the 1820s received wide publicity, and a "gold fever" resulted. Thousands of people began trekking to the areas in search of instant wealth. Most returned home empty-handed, but successful prospectors found millions of dollars' worth of precious metal.
- What should they do with their new wealth? Many felt the Philadelphia Mint was too far away for safe travel, and the government wasn't ready to create other coining facilities. A jack-of-all-trades named Templeton Reid had an answer: strike private gold coins, at a private mint. Reid had extensive experience as a watchmaker, gunsmith, and metalworker. In July 1830, he set up shop in the Georgia hamlet of Milledgeville and began his brief career as private moneyer-the first since Ephraim Brasher.
- He later moved to Gainesville, which was closer to the gold mining district. His coins came in three denominations: ten dollars, five dollars, and two and one-half dollars, in recognition of "official" denominations. And he put slightly more gold into his products than the federal government did into its coins, just to be on the safe side.
- Although historians believe that Templeton Reid conducted business fairly, an unknown adversary, signing himself simply "no assayer," published several notices in newspapers complaining that the coins were not as represented.
- Rumors spread and before long Reid was forced to close up the business.
- date made
- 1830
- obverse designer
- Templeton Reid
- reverse designer
- Templeton Reid
- maker
- Templeton Reid
- ID Number
- NU.68.159.1185
- accession number
- 283645
- catalog number
- 68.159.1185
-
- Description (Brief)
- One (1) 20 dollar coin, ultra high relief pattern
- United States, 1907
- Obverse Image: Full-length Liberty holding a torch in her right hand and olive branch in left. Capitol Dome in lower left; rays of sun in background; stars around rim.
- Obverse Text: LIBERTY / MCMVII
- Reverse Image: Eagle flying through rays of sun.
- Reverse Text: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA / TWENTY DOLLARS
- Edge: E PLURIBUS UNUM divided by stars.
- General Information: Ultra high relief pattern double eagle with a lettered edge. No Motto.
- Description
- In 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt asked sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens to redesign American coinage. As Saint-Gaudens began work on the project, there was never any possibility that he would restrict himself to well-traveled artistic paths. Playing it safe was against his nature and that of the president for whom he toiled.
- As a result of Saint-Gaudens's vision and Roosevelt's persistence, Americans got their most beautiful double eagle, one of the most artistic pieces of money ever struck. Instead of a head or a static, seated goddess, Saint-Gaudens's Lady Liberty strides towards us, the dawn at her back. She represents the morning of the Republic, full of possibilities and hope.
- She bears a torch in her right hand, an olive branch in her left: offerings of freedom and peace. The law said that Saint-Gaudens had to use an eagle for his reverse design, and so he did. But what an eagle! Nothing like it had ever been seen before. The naturalistic bird, in such high relief that it threatens to soar out of the circular space that seeks to enclose it, is all movement and grace.
- Saint-Gaudens and his patron surely knew that this coin was impossible to make in mass quantities. The high relief came at a high price: it took nine blows from the hydraulic coining press to strike each one. Charles E. Barber, the Mint's chief engraver, strenuously objected out of jealousy, but he had a point.
- This is no way to make money for mass circulation. But to Roosevelt and Saint-Gaudens, the chief engraver and other critics lacked vision. This ultra-high relief double eagle was intended to show what artistry and technology could do when afforded the chance. Fewer than two dozen of the ultra-high relief coins were minted, in February and March of 1907.
- date made
- 1907
- mint
- U.S. Mint. Philadelphia
- designer
- Saint-Gaudens, Augustus
- ID Number
- NU.68.159.0376
- accession number
- 283645
- catalog number
- 68.159.0376
