5 Dollars, United States, 1838
date: label: date made
content: 1838
name: label: mint
content: U.S. Mint, Philadelphia
label: designer
content: Kneass, William
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: One (1) 5 dollar coin
label: Description (Brief)
content: United States, 1838
label: Description (Brief)
content: Obverse Image: Left-facing Liberty head with curled hair and wearing headband. 13 stars along coin edge.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Obverse Text: LIBERTY / 1838
label: Description (Brief)
content: Reverse Image: Eagle with wings outstretched clutching arrows and branch in talons, shield over chest with vertical stripes on bottom part and horizontal stripes on top part.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Reverse Text: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA / 5 D.
label: Description
content: This coin may be one of those minted from the bequest that James Smithson left to the United States for the creation of the Smithsonian Institution. James Smithson was born in 1765 as the illegitimate son of Sir Hugh Smithson, later known as Sir Hugh Percy, Baronet, 1st Duke of Northumberland, K.G., and Elizabeth Hungerford Keate. Elizabeth Keate had been married to James Macie, and so Smithson first bore the name of James Lewis Macie.
label: Description
content: His mother later married Mark Dickinson, by whom she had another son. When she died in 1800, he and his half-brother inherited a sizable estate. He changed his name at this time from "Macie" to "Smithson."
label: Description
content: James Smithson died June 27, 1829, in Genoa, Italy. His will left his fortune to his nephew, son of his half-brother, but stipulated that if that nephew died without children (legitimate or illegitimate), the money should go "to the United States of America, to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men." The nephew, Henry Hungerford Dickinson, died without heirs in 1835, and Smithson's bequest was accepted in 1836 by the United States Congress.
label: Description
content: James Smithson never visited the United States, and the reason for his generous bequest is unknown. The gift was the foundation grant for the Smithsonian Institution. The British gold coins in Smithson's bequest were quickly carried to the Philadelphia Mint, where they were melted down and recycled into American gold coins.
label: Description
content: Most of the new coins were half eagles or five-dollar pieces. On the obverse, they have a left-facing Liberty head, her hair bound with a ribbon; on the reverse is a simple, unexceptional eagle with denomination.
label: Description
content: The original design was the product of a German immigrant named John Reich, substantially altered by a second artist named William Kneass, tweaked again by another German immigrant, Christian Gobrecht.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place of issue
content: United States
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: National Numismatic Collection
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content: Coins
label: See more items in
content: Numismatics
label: See more items in
content: Coins, Currency and Medals
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content: Legendary Coins
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: Zoomable Image and Details
label: Related Publication
content: Glossary of Coins and Currency Terms
label: Related Web Publication
content: http://americanhistory.si.edu/coins/glossary.cfm
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: U.S. Department of the Treasury, U.S. Mint
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1985.0441.0293
label: catalog number
content: 1985.0441.0293
label: accession number
content: 1985.0441
objectType: label: Object Name
content: coin
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: gold (overall metal)
label: Physical Description
content: 0 (overall die axis)
label: Physical Description
content: 0 (overall die axis measurement)
label: Physical Description
content: struck (overall production method)
label: Measurements
content: overall: dia. 22.5 mm; wt. 8.361 g