The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1907-08-18
DESIGNS FOR
The NEW COINS
Government Accepted Those
Submitted By the Late
Aug. St. Gaudens.

The new United States coins de-
signed iby the date Augustus st. Gau-
dens have been accepted by the gov
eminent. Mr. ST. Gaudens was com
miSsioned by President Roosevelt
more than a year ago to furnish new
designs for certain coins and took in
hand three denOminatiOnS-the double
eagle, the eagle and the one cent
piece. Work was delayed on the de-
signs and it was only recently that
the dies were cut, from which num-
Der of specimens were struck, these
showing the principal devices on the
diverse and the reverse, but without
any inscription 1t seems that certain
mint difficulties had to be overcome,
the designs being in unusually high
belief. Owing to the unfinished nature
of the coins the mint authorities did
not feel at liberty to make public
these designs, and indeed but little Of
fetal reference was made. to them TN
til President Roosevelt, several days be-
fore Mr. ST. GaudenS'S death, in let
ter to a committee of the American
Numismatic Society acknowledging
the receipt of a series of resolutions
petitioning for a complete change in
the whole United States coinage, an
nOunced you will be pleased to know
that we are now completing a new
coinage of the eagle and the double
eagle, designed by Saint Gaudens,
than whom there certainly is no great
er artistic genius living in the United
States, or elsewhere
Information has just been obtained,
apparently from Mr.. st. Gaudens's
son, that the artist had also com
pleted the design for the bronze cent.
The Indian head is retained, but a
radical Improvement is made by intro
ducing a characteristic head of an
American Indian with real headdress
instead of the present design, which
orally is the Caucasian type, the face
having been posed for by a little
daughter of James B. Longacre, the
mint engraver, who designed the pres
ent one cent piece in Philadelphia in
1859.
The head of Liberty is retained on
the double eagle and the eagle, but
idealiZed, and it is said that the pOr-
trait was posed for by Miss Mary
Cunningham, a member of Mr.. St Gau-
dens's household. On the reverse of
the twenty-dollar gold piece is an
erect eagle. such as has been used on
previous. United States gold coins, but
of original design and execution. The
present gold piece of this denomina-
ton was designed by Mr.. Longacre in
1S49, the year the denomination was
first authorized by congress.
The ten dollar gold piece is very diff
ferent from the present design, which
is the work of Mine Engraver William
Kneass, and has been in constant use
since 1888. The St. Gaindens gold
piece shows ON the observe the same
ideahzed head of Liberty as borne by
the double eagle, but on the reverse is
a flying eagle somewhat after the
style of that borne by the eagle cents
of 1857 and 1858, but more particularly
! the pattern half dollars and dollars
struck at the mint in 1886 and 1888,
the work of Designer Christian Co
brecht. The latter engraver used as
| a model the live eagle Peter, known
| in Philadelphia as the Mint Bird, -
which for number of years flew all
about the city, but each night came
home to roOst at the mint, and which
was afterward caught in some of the
mint machinery and killed.
The new designs are all said to be
extremely beautiful and admirers of
| the eminent sculptor are much pleased
! to learn that they are suitable for
adoption, so that Mr.. st. Gaudens may
have still another lasting and fitting
monument to his genius.