The Historical Significance Of Those Saint Gaudens Double Eagles

By Author: Deborah Smith
Total Articles: 1444
Comment this article

There would be no more controversial set of coins minted from the U.S. Mint than the Saint Gaudens Double Eagles. It's hard to imagine that these beautifully designed coins were produced based on the thought that then president Theodore Roosevelt would be able to alter the image of America.

It was during his term in the early 1900s that President Roosevelt was consumed with the idea of having America stand on par along with rest of the world powers of the time. There came the time of beautification in America, from its educational system to its government and other important buildings. It became Roosevelt's priority that the American image be overhauled from one which was perceived as rough-and-tumble to at least one that could hold its head high with other countries in the Old World . One way that he knew would send this message across into countries belonging to the Old World in Europe was through their currency. In comparison with coins from other countries, the American coins looked extremely dull, almost trite and definitely unoriginal. This makeover became a crusade of his, even developing with the way to get the ...
... designs of these coins changed with no approval from Congress.

In his mind, the only person which might design the coins properly was the sculptor Augustus Saint Gaudens, one man who was already at loggerheads against the current Mint Engraver Charles Barber on issues about the designs of previous coins. Despite these two swearing publicly never to work together again, the President got his wish and in 1905, Saint Gaudens was busily designing the double eagles to make the gold coins. These coins are notable for another reason - usually these are designed by an employee at the U.S. Mint, which Saint Gaudens was not. The proofs submitted by Saint Gaudens were continuously rejected by Mr. Barbers, with a result being the coins weren't minted until after Saint Gaudens died in 1907. Barber's arguments were justified, though. The initial coins were designed in such high relief that they took several blows to mint, nine with the initial coin and three on second design. It was unfortunate at that time that modern coins were designed to be minted in a single blow - a necessity considering the energy and time needed to make large quantities of coin. The result of these coins circulating to today would be the result of Barbers' redesign of Saint Gaudens' final masterpiece.

Find additional information and history on the series of Saint Gaudens Double Eagles, with details on important issues like the 1907 Double Eagle.