American Numismatic Society

    Exhibit: "I suppose I shall be impeached for it......”  Theodore Roosevelt, Augustus Saint- Gaudens and America’s most beautiful coin

 

“I suppose I shall be impeached for it......”
Theodore Roosevelt, Augustus Saint- Gaudens
and America’s most beautiful coin

 

X

 

At the Federal Reserve Bank of New York

33 Liberty Street

2007 marks not only the centenary year of both the death of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, America’s greatest sculptor of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but also the release of his revolutionary and controversial designs for the twenty- and ten-dollar gold pieces. Today these are hailed as the most beautiful coins ever produced by the United States. As works of art, the prototype designs for the double eagle ($20), struck in high relief, hold their own among the tour-deforce numismatic works produced in 5th and 4th century BC Greece. And this is exactly what was intended by the artist and his patron, the President of the United States, Theodore
Roosevelt.

The partnership of an artist and a president to create new designs for coinage was, and remains, unparalleled in American history. That the concept was the President’s own makes it all the more extraordinary, and that he was willing to flex the muscle of his office to facilitate, if not eliminate, bureaucratic intransigence is, in our new millennium, all but unfathomable to contemplate.

The exhibition at the New York Federal Reserve Bank draws together elements of all phases of this remarkable partnership and commission. The collections of the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site, the American Numismatic Society and Rauner Special Collections Library, Dartmouth College, contain an incomparable array of material which charts virtually all phases of the commission as well as Saint Gaudens’ career as a cameo cutter, sculptor and medalist.

X

*Above - Head of Liberty, with stars and LIBERTY. Plaster.
Collection of the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site

From his early years,  Saint-Gaudens was keenly
interested in coinage and cameos. As a young man, he trained in New
York City working for a cameo workshop.

Some of his cameos illustrate the influence of the classical
numismatic prototypes that he
is known to have used as
inspiration. Examples of his
medallic work range from
private commissions for
friends, to the 1889
Washington Inaugural
Centennial (with an example
of its Renaissance prototype),
to examples of the Columbian
Exposition Award medal, including
both the accepted and rejected designs
which began Saint-Gaudens’ long standing distrust of
the United States Mint, and his disdain for Charles
Barber (the chief engraver at the U.S.
Mint 1879-1917).

The centerpiece of the exhibition focuses on the
development of the designs for the new coinage, and concentrates on the design of Saint-Gaudens’ masterpiece, the double eagle. Correspondence with the President,
examples of Saint-Gaudens’ original pencil sketches and his sketch plasters culminate with the massive 12 inch plaster of the famed ultra-high relief, which was sent to
the US Mint.

Dovetailing with this, from the American Numismatic Society (and formerly in the collection of Saint-Gaudens’ assistant, Henry Hering) are the series of electrotypes of the ultra-high relief in production, showing the progression of the multiple strikes needed to fully bring up the detail. These were requested by Saint-Gaudens
himself. For comparison, the electrotype of the ultra-high relief hub will also be displayed. 

Other display cases exhibit some of the rejected designs for the Cent, and for Saint-Gaudens’ own preference for a standing eagle reverse for the double eagle – which ultimately graced the eagle ($10). The development of this design is shown in every stage of the production: from pencil sketch to plaster, to a full-size bronze cast, to the half-size galavano sent to the Mint for further reduction, to electrotypes of the design in three levels of relief, to its use as the reverse of the eagle.

Augustus Saint-Gaudens (a life member of the American Numismatic Society) quite literally gave some of his very last thoughts to bettering his fellow Americans’ coinage. The depth of Saint-Gaudens’ impact can still be felt in our pockets today, for the inventiveness and artistic integrity that he brought to American coin design, and which continued through his students: James Earle Fraser’s buffalo nickel, Adolf Weinman’s Mercury dime and walking Liberty half dollar, and finally John Flanagan’s Washington quarter, which is
still circulating today.

X

* Cameo with Hercules head. Collection SGNHS.

* Rejected reverse of Columbian Exposition Medal. Collection SGNHS.

* Photograph of Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Collection SGNHS

* Letter of Saint-Gaudens accepting membership in the ANS. Collection ANS.

The American Numismatic Society

96 Fulton Street

New York, NY 10038

t. (212) 571-4470  f. (212)571-4479)

info@numismatics.org

www.numismatics.org

press release

ANS home

ANS calendar

ANS exhibitions