5 Dollars, Proof, United States, 1908
date: label: Date made
content: 1908
name: label: mint
content: United States Mint
label: designer
content: Pratt, Bela Lyon
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: One (1) 5 dollar coin, matte proof
label: Description (Brief)
content: United States, 1908
label: Description (Brief)
content: Obverse Image: Left profile of a Native American man wearing a feathered headdress. 13 stars around.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Obverse Text: LIBERTY / 1908 / B.L.P.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Reverse Image: Eagle perched on a bundle of arrows and an olive branch.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Reverse Text: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA / IN GOD WE TRUST / E PLURIBUS UNUM / FIVE DOLLARS
label: Description
content: Dr. William S. Bigelow, a close friend of President Theodore Roosevelt, thought coins would wear better if designs were impressed into their surfaces rather than raised above them. He successfully recruited Roosevelt to the idea and Bela Lyon Pratt, a well-known Boston sculptor, was commissioned to create a design. Overturning thousands of years of numismatic tradition, this incuse or engraved style coin was the first to be produced by the United States Mint. The design went into production, but it did not escape all criticism. S.H. Chapman, a well-known Philadelphia coin dealer, expressed his displeasure in a letter to Roosevelt. He claimed that the new coin was a disgrace to the country, criticizing the incuse concept on aesthetic and technical grounds. Regardless, the new design prevailed and remained in use until 1929. This particular coin was struck for collectors rather than for commerce; the sandblast texture on its surfaces was one of several new ideas experimented with but deemed impractical for mass circulation.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States
label: place of issue
content: United States
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: National Numismatic Collection
label: See more items in
content: Coins, Currency and Medals
label: See more items in
content: Josiah K. Lilly Jr. Collection
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Estate of Josiah K. Lilly
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: NU.68.159.0254
label: accession number
content: 283645
label: catalog number
content: 68.159.0254
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)