Most beautiful' gold coin struck -- West Point U.S. Mint
Arizona Coin Collector
http://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/November08/24/WP_coin-24Nov08.htm
Monday, November 24, 2008
Most beautiful' gold coin struck
WEST POINT - The 2009 Ultra High Relief Double Eagle
gold coin was struck at the U.S. Mint at West Point
Monday.
The pure gold 24-karat coin is a modern version of
what many call the most beautiful gold piece ever
created - the Augustus Saint-Gaudens 1907 Double
Eagle.
The Mint will begin taking orders for the
collectible coin early next year. The price will
be set at that time to reflect the market rate
of gold.
United States Mint Director Ed Moy struck the
first coin, which will be transferred to the
Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of
American History. He struck a second coin as
an addition to the United States Mint's
heritage assets.
In the early 1900s, President Theodore Roosevelt
called for a "renaissance" in American coinage.
He thought the coins of that era were unattractive
and wanted them to embody the national identity
of the United States and its preeminence on the
world stage. Roosevelt chose Augustus
Saint-Gaudens to redesign America's coins.
Saint-Gaudens was a renowned sculptor and artist
who shared the President's vision for expressing
America's national identity visually through art.
However, despite Saint-Gaudens' masterful design
for a $20 gold piece with ultra high relief, it
could not be mass produced using the technology
of that era.
..
Arizona Coin Collector
--------------------------------------------------------
FROM:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/25/arts/design/25coin.html
Century Later, Gold Coin Reflects Sculptor's Vision
By MATTHEW HEALEY
Published: November 24, 2008
WEST POINT, N.Y. - With the push of a button and
some 60 tons of pressure, a blank gold disc was
converted into an ultra-high-relief coin at the
branch of the United States Mint here Monday,
and a century-old vision for America's coinage
was finally fully realized.
Edmund C. Moy, director of the mint, with the
$20 gold coin, below, struck on Monday.
(PHOTO IMAGE LINK 1)
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/11/25/arts/coin190.jpg
(PHOTO IMAGE LINK 2)
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/11/24/arts/COIN191.jpg
Producing the $20 coins, initially conceived
by the American sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens
in 1907, has been a personal goal of the mint's
director, Edmund C. Moy, since he was appointed
in 2006. "Saint-Gaudens was a bit of a poet
and wanted to tell a story," Mr. Moy said at a
ceremony Monday at the branch, where the new
coin was first struck. "Liberty has visited
America and is now marching into the rest of
the world, led by enlightenment. America's
best days are ahead."
In President Theodore Roosevelt's opinion, those
ideals weren't embodied by existing coins, and
he commissioned his friend Saint-Gaudens to come
up with fresh designs.
His vision for the coin, known as a double eagle
(it was twice the value of the $10 coin known
as the eagle), was hailed by Roosevelt and
others as a classical masterpiece. A full
figure representing Liberty strides toward the
viewer, torch raised, hair flowing and robes
billowing, one foot on a promontory while the
sun rises over the Capitol dome behind her.
The reverse shows an eagle in flight over a
blazing sun. The coin's mastery lay chiefly in
two trademarks of the sculptor's style, typical
of his medals: the comparatively high relief
and the graceful incorporation of lettering in
the design.
But one crucial person was not enamored: Charles
Barber, chief engraver of the United States Mint
at the time and a designer himself of several
coins then in circulation - those Roosevelt and
much of the public so disliked. According to
Alison Frankel's 2006 book, "Double Eagle,"
Barber fought for his turf and did little to
smooth the way for Saint-Gaudens's designs.
Barber's main critique was that the coin's
exceptionally high relief made production
impossibly slow and difficult, and he had a
point. In early tests up to 11 strikes per
coin were required to bring out all the
details. A variation using a smaller but
thicker blank had to be abandoned because
such a change would need Congressional approval.
Barber then remade the coin in a considerably
flatter version that would work for high-volume
production. The following year, 1908, Congress
insisted that the motto "In God We Trust" be
added. Roosevelt, a religious man, considered it
inappropriate to put the name of God on money,
and had told Saint-Gaudens (who died in August
1907 before production began) to omit it. The
motto was inserted, somewhat incongruously, on
the coin's reverse, between the sun and its
rays. This version circulated until 1933, when
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, as part of his
response to the Depression, banned hoarding
of gold.
Today, the 1907 ultra-high relief $20 trial
pieces are highly prized by collectors, not only
for their beauty but also for their rarity.
Fewer than two dozen survive, and they command
six- and seven-figure prices. A circulated
flat-relief version, containing a little less
than an ounce of gold, typically sells for $800
to $1,200.
The double eagle is still generally considered
the most beautiful American coin ever made.
"We haven't been as thoughtful with all our
coin designs in the modern era," Mr. Moy said
after the ceremony, adding that he hoped to
introduce modern coins that were beautiful,
high-tech and uniquely American.
In the 1980s the mint began producing gold
bullion coins that revived the flat-relief
design on one side, in one-ounce sizes and
smaller, for investors.
The newest coins, slightly more than an inch
in diameter, use the smaller, thicker blanks
rejected in 1907, are dated MMIX (2009), and
contain exactly an ounce of 24-karat gold. The
original coins were larger in size and
contained 22-karat gold, hard enough to
withstand circulation, but Mr. Moy, said modern
investors prefer pure gold, which also has the
benefit of being soft enough to turn into
ultra-high relief coins.
The first $20 coin will be placed in the
National Museum of American History of the
Smithsonian Institution. The rest, which will
be produced for only a year, go on sale to
collectors and investors in January, at a
price still to be determined, based largely
on the current bullion price of gold. (On
Monday afternoon it was about $824 an ounce
in New York.)
Though the new coin is largely faithful to
Saint-Gaudens's vision, in one respect it
won't resemble the original: the reverse still
reads "In God We Trust."
..
Frank Provasek
bullion related items in 1997 after watching almost everything drop to
around melt value.
--
RARE COIN AUCTIONS NO RESERVES www.frankcoins.com
http://myworld.ebay.com/frankcoins Texas Auction License
11259, Board member of Texas Coin Dealers Association,
Member TNA, ANA, PCGS, NGC - Full Time Since 1991