Saint-Gaudens Patterns

[jtryka]

I just thought I would bring your attention to a wonderful article by Eric von Klinger in the August 22, 2005 issue of Coin World on Saint-Gaudens pattern coins. It was well written and chock full of information on how the most beautiful coins ever produced by the US Mint came into being. Saint-Gaudens basically came up with two concepts for the gold coins, one of Liberty Striding (the familiar image from the double eagle) and another head of Liberty. Teddy Roosevelt apparently gave Saint-Gaudens the idea for the Indian headdress, which eventually graced the eagle. The intended design was for the Liberty in the Indian Headdress to be paired with the flying eagle reverse for the double eagle. Two patterns are known of this coin, one in gold sold in 1984 for $467,500, the other is a lead impression held at the American Numusmatic Society. Roosevelt eventually decided on the pairing of the striding liberty with the flying eagle reverse for the double eagle, becoming the familiar Saint we know today. There were several additions that Saint-Gaudens added, which were unusual for US coins, including the date in Roman numerals. He also wanted to add the word "justice" but that was rejected. The original "ultra high-relief" patterns were struck as the sculptor and Roosevelt intended. Unfortunately Saint-Gaudens was gravely ill with intestinal cancer in late 1906, so his assistant Henry Hering finished the plaster models and delivered them to the mint in December 1906. In a later account in the Numismatist in 1949, he said he deliberately made the relief so high that it couldn't possibly be achieved in a singe strike. Though his memory was uncertain, he mentioned in that article that a hydraulic pressure of 172 tons was used and it took nine stampings for all the details to be brought up! The Judd book differs, saying it took seven strikes at 150 tons to create these patterns. In any case, after five pieces were struck, the dies broke. Of these five, four had edge lettering of "E Pluribus Unum" with a star after each letter, while the fifth had a plain edge. With the challenge of striking, someone came up with an idea of using a smaller diameter, and they used a planchet of $10 diameter with extra thickness to create the required $20 weight. The Judd book states that at least 16 of these patterns were struck, all with a lettered edge. Akers stated in 1975 that two such patterns were in the Smithsonian, and a third was believed to exist based on reports that the New York Numismatic Society at one time owned it and displayed it at the Metropolitan Museum in 1908. Given the relief and striking issues, Charles E. Barber, then Mint Chief Engraver, believed they could produce at most 400 per day of the UHR coins on the medal press. Hence, Barber modified the relief and 11,250 HR coins were struck, which statisfied Roosevelt. Unfortunately Saint-Gaudens died before this, and only saw his UHR pattern to reality. Later in 1907, Barber again lowered the relief and changed the date to Arabic numerals, which remained until the series ended in 1933. In 1908, by act of Congress, the Motto "In God We Trust" was added to the reverse, despite Roosevelt's contention that it was blasphemous. Despite the lowering of the relief, the average Saint has more beauty and higher relief than any of our coins today, which look more like slugs by comparison. Thus was the genesis of the Saint-Gaudens double eagle. I only wish the article delved more deeply into the Saint-Gaudens eagle design. Still, my favorite quote from the article (which I think I'll add to my signature line) was said by Roosevelt to Treasury Secretary Leslie Morimer Shaw on December 27, 1904, "I think our coinage is artistically of atrocious hideousness." It's even more true today!

[HaydenTubbs]

"I think our coinage is artistically of atrocious hideousness."

Oh, boy how true!

 

Sounds like an interesting article but I haven't gotten the latest CW yet...

 

 

-Hayden

[Oldtrader3]

Jeff: Adding to your posting, Q. D. Bowers, "United States Gold Coins, An Illustrated History" shows sketches and a plaster of the Indian Double eagle (Judd-1776), plus a plaster of the St. Gaudens, Winged Victory head double eagle. The text of this chapter very closely parallels your posting. Bowers states that (1) Indian Double pattern coin of Judd-1776 was struck, but never pursued any further. The double eagle pattern head design was identical to the Indian Eagle.

[jtryka]

One other aspect of the article was the contemplation of a winged striding liberty with an Indian headdress. Both the wings and headdress were dropped, and no pattern pieces were made with those design elements. I am not sure the double eagle pattern was identical to the Indian eagle, as the word "Liberty" was placed below the image of Liberty on the double eagle pattern, while the date appeared in Roman numerals on the sun on the reverse below the flying eagle.

[TomB]

There are many other proposed Saint Gaudens designs for the double eagle and these are imaged as original sketches or plaster casts in a pamphlet I bought from the Saint Gaudens National Historic Society (SGNHS) in 1997. The pamphlet is only twelve pages and it cost a few dollars, but was definitely worth it. You may want to look up the SGNHS on the web and see if there are any remaining.

 

Oddly enough, at the same time I was able to buy a direct transfer impression plaster cast of the model for the Saint Gaudens eagle reverse and it now hangs on the wall near my computer. It is approximately 18 inches across and the SGNHS made 6-8 impressions of each obverse and reverse for the gold coins. They have long sold out and were not cheap.

[RWB]

Eric von Klinger put together a good article based on what has been published to date.

Howevr, if you wait until November, you will find that there is much more to the story and a lot of it is not part of the "conventional wisdom."

 

BTW - Henry Hering's 1949 Numismatist: "The article originated in April 1933 as transcribed reminiscences by Hering to Lillian Grant, secretary to George Godard, Librarian of the Connecticut State Library. Godard was trying to convince Hering to donate one of his high relief MCMVII coins to the Mitchelson collection and the two had just returned from luncheon and drinks. Hering sold a knife rim version to the collection for $45 in June 1933." Much of Mr. Hering's article is incorrect.

[jtryka]

What is happening in November?

[AlixTCat]

"Teddy Roosevelt apparently gave Saint-Gaudens the idea for the Indian headdress, which eventually graced the eagle."

 

Do you have any examples of this? I looked at your registry set but could not find any eagles with indian headresses.

 

Jonathan

[jtryka]

"Teddy Roosevelt apparently gave Saint-Gaudens the idea for the Indian headdress, which eventually graced the eagle."

 

Do you have any examples of this? I looked at your registry set but could not find any eagles with indian headresses.

 

Jonathan

 

No double eagles exist with the striding Liberty with headdress from what I understand, but the headdress idea was incorporated on the design that would eventually grace the eagle, which you can see here: Indian Eagle There was a pattern made of the double eagle with the Indian design (Judd-1776) but I could only find small photos of it:

[AlixTCat]

"Teddy Roosevelt apparently gave Saint-Gaudens the idea for the Indian headdress, which eventually graced the eagle."

 

Do you have any examples of this? I looked at your registry set but could not find any eagles with indian headresses.

 

Jonathan

 

No double eagles exist with the striding Liberty with headdress from what I understand, but the headdress idea was incorporated on the design that would eventually grace the eagle, which you can see here: Indian Eagle There was a pattern made of the double eagle with the Indian design (Judd-1776) but I could only find small photos of it:

 

 

Oh, thank you for posting the image. I am so dense... I could not figure out how they would put a headdress on the eagle! Hahaha! The headdress was on Liberty, not the eagle. I get it now. Duh! Call me dense. Go ahead, do it!

Jonathan

[IGWT]

I am so dense . . . . Duh! Call me dense. Go ahead, do it!

 

Go across the street if you want to be called names.

[Oldtrader3]

Jeff: I have been going through some other gold reference books on gold coins and also have not been able to find a Saint Gaudens, Striding Liberty w/ Headress sketch or pattern anyplace. Harry Bass did not have anything either.

[jtryka]

From what I understand, there were no patterns or models of the striding Liberty with headdress or wings, so at best there might still be some sketches. It might be a good topic to as the Saint-Gaudens National Historical Site. I know they have the plaster model of his one-cent design. Their website is www.sgnhs.org.

[RWB]

jtryka:

 

In November a book will be published that gives all the details of the S-G designs and initial production (and the Pratt gold designs, too). Much of the info has never been published before and is not in any of the "standard" references. Many portions of the story are very different from the usual story.

 

Regarding the headdress: Roosevelt liked Indian headdresses and S-G tried to accommodate by putting a small one on the first striding Liberty w/wings. The whole thing was too "busy" and confused, so S-G dropped the headdress and completed the striding Liberty design we know today. After TR saw the $20 models in Dec 1906, S-G moved ahead with his design for the cent: the Liberty head but w/o Indian headdress. TR again asked for a headdress and S-G quickly stuck one on the cent's Liberty design. It is the one cent obverse design (shown above) that S-G then asked to see in the size of a double eagle and paired with the flying eagle reverse. (To keep things confused, the flying eagle was originally to be the obverse of the cent.) The $10 eagle coin did not come about until May 1907 and that was on TR's instructions based on a suggestion by director Roberts.

 

I hope this is helpful.

 

 

I hope this is helpful.

[jtryka]

Now I am excited, I can't wait for the book. Will it include illustrations of some of these coins that never were?

 

The other day I was thinking, what if Saint-Gaudens hadn't died before he finished the reworking of American coinage under Roosevelt? Specifically, What if his cent design was adoped in 1907? I believe that had his cent design been implemented, the Lincoln cent in 1909 would have been a one year circulating commemorative with the resumption of the Saint-Gaudens cent in 1910. Without the Lincoln cent, it's doubtful that the Washington quarters would have been more than a one-year circulating commem in 1932, the same goes for the Jefferson in 1938, and the Roosevelt in 1946 and the Kennedy half in 1964. That one little cent, could have changed the course of numismatic history, eliminating the stale designs of dead presidents we must endure today (and perhaps even eliminated the Virginia Congressional Delegation's iron-fisted control over out nickel designs!). Just imagine what could have been, had Augustus Saint-Gaudens been able to complete his mission to completely redesign America's "ugly" coins of the early 20th century, spreading his vision, beauty and execution beyond the eagle and double eagle.

[Oldtrader3]

We had interesting designs for the Buffalo Nickel, Mercury Dime, St. Liberty quarter and Walking Liberty half after TR's presidency. However by the end of WWII, these designs had all been replaced by dead presidents. Almost none of our present Congressmen and Senators have the imagination, boldness or courage to break with the pack and suggest better designs. IMHO, most of the state quarters are all pretty unremarkable designs, with low relief. They certainly are not pieces of art.

[TomB]

The pamphlet that I wrote about earlier has not only a photograph of the clay sketch of a winged Liberty striding with Native American headdress, torch and shield, but also has a photograph of the plaster cast of a winged Liberty striding with Native American headdress, torch and olive branch. These currently reside at the SGNHS in NH.

[Oldtrader3]

There is a book available on the SGNHS containing St. Gaudens sculptures, coin designs etc. I wonder if the clay sketch might be in that book?

[RWB]

jtryka, TomB, OldTrader, et al:

 

Yes, the November book will illustrate a great many of the artists' sketches and models including ones that have not been seen for nearly 100 years - even the original 1907 low relief models! It also straightens out the whole design and pattern coin story.

 

Re: “...What if Saint-Gaudens hadn't died before he finished the reworking of American coinage under Roosevelt?” Great topic for speculation!

 

Part of the reason we have so many interesting variations on the S-G coins is that he did not succeed in the original commission. That, if you recall from the CW article, was simply one design for all four gold coins and a separate design for the cent - they were the only coins that could be changed legally in 1905. Confusion, misunderstanding, illness, and TRs impatience conspired to alter the commission, and the results. Had things gone according to plan there would have been no high relief or extremely high relief $20 or small diameter EHR $20s; no gold eagle with Liberty in a Native American ceremonial headdress. Only a medium relief double eagle with a reverse resembling the 1905 inaugural medal reverse (plus the smaller gold coins), and a cent with a flying eagle on the obverse and a wreath and date on the reverse! Bela Pratt would have kept right on cranking out statues, William Bigelow would have stuck to his Japanese porno collection, Victor Brenner would have completed the Panama Canal medal in 1908 and wandered off. Charles Barber's 1910 Washington nickel might have been adopted, etc, etc.

 

Overall, I think we are richer for the confluence of ego and error that marked the Saint-Gaudens-Roosevelt collaboration. Jim Fraser put it well in 1922 when he remarked that the Peace dollar represented the striving for a richness and expressiveness in American coinage that had been sought by Saint-Gaudens and Roosevelt when the redesign began.

 

The booklet you asked about is: “Augustus Saint-Gaudens - The 1907 United States Gold Coinage” by John H. Dryfout and Henry Duffy, PhD. It’s available from the Saint-Gaudens HNS, 139 Saint Gaudens Road, Cornish, NH 03745. It has photos of several of the sketch models including the Striding Liberty one with wings and shield. I think it costs $4.95 or $5.95 and can be orderd through the SGNHS web site.

[jtryka]

You've piqued my interest, now I can't wait for this book! Please keep us updated on it, including title, publisher, where to buy it etc. Thanks!