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These days, with the mighty greenback looking green at the gills and the euro laughing all the way to the bank, even our once-durable coinage is under assault. Critics are calling for the extinction of the penny; although Thomas Jefferson still graces the nickel, his portrait has been reworked; and quarters come in 50 flavors. And whatever happened to the half dollar? What's worse, nobody seems to care about the aesthetics of pocket change.
There was a time when coins were small masterpieces crafted by artists, when no less a personage than President Theodore Roosevelt took an interest in their design. Two almost impossibly rare gold pieces in the collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History (NMAH) testify to TR's quest for numismatic glory.
In the early 1900s, the president decided that the $20 double eagle (fashioned after the $10 coin bearing the image of our national bird), in circulation since the mid-19th century, needed a face-lift. To do the job, he called on America's preeminent sculptor, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, who had designed TR's 1905 inaugural medal.
Although Saint-Gaudens was terminally ill—he would die of cancer in August 1907—the sculptor created what many consider to be the most beautiful coin this country ever minted. One side depicts an eagle in flight; on the obverse, the figure of Liberty strides forward, torch in one hand and olive branch in the other, her hair streaming behind her. The model was Harriette Eugenia Anderson, a young woman originally from South Carolina; Saint-Gaudens described her as "certainly the handsomest model I have ever seen of either sex."
The new double eagle, introduced in 1907, was coin of the realm for the next 16 years, until Teddy's cousin, President Franklin Roosevelt, moved the country off the gold standard in 1933. Gold coins of all denominations were ordered exchanged for paper currency. (Collectors were exempted from the law, a loophole that has resulted in any number of lawsuits.)
At the nation's Mints in 1933, gold coins were melted down and converted into ingots. According to Alison Frankel, author of Double Eagle: The Epic Story of the World's Most Valuable Coin, George McCann, a laborer at the Philadephia Mint, seems to have succumbed to a temptation—just as the last of the uncirculated 1933 double eagles were headed to the melting chamber. "There are many instances," says Frankel, "of people pocketing coins that are about to become rare."
Only nine days later, after 2,000-degree fires had turned most of Saint-Gaudens' masterpieces into mush, a Philadelphia jeweler, Izzy Switt, would sell one double eagle, almost certainly obtained from McCann, to a coin collector.
Because 1933 double eagles were never circulated and were thought to have all been melted down, collectors view the handful in existence as the most numinous of numismatic treasure. Mystery continues to surround them. "We don't know how many survived," says Richard Doty, an NMAH curator.
Comments
I am trying to find out the value of a 1933 qurater. The quarter dollar is silver and it's not in mint condition. If someone can please respond and possibly give me some information I would greatful. Thank You, Gloria Mccullough
Posted by Gloria Mccullough on July 27,2008 | 06:22AM
Hi: Im trying to find out the value of pottery called devon ware, made in England in the last century
Posted by Brenton Martlin on September 9,2008 | 10:33AM
Gloria, only 5 1933 quarters are known so you should keep yours. the reason there is only 5 is that the mint wanted to commemratate george washingtons 200th birthday. so they stopped making standing liberty quarters and started making washington. but with the deppression they held off fro a year in 1932 and started making them in 1934. its just like the 1913 v nickel ( 5 made by a drunk guy in the mint the buffalo nickel started in 1913) in the smithsonian institute. also there is the 1959 wheat cent (they stopped making them in 1958 and made the memorial.) and finally the last 2, the 1933 double eagle only 13 known only 1 has ever sold and it sold for like 7,550,000$ the highest ever paid for a singl coin. and last but not least the 1976 s ike they made them in clad that year but there a silver ones out there so i hope i answered your question Gloria.
Posted by Todd on October 18,2009 | 05:21PM