50 Dollars, Pattern, United States, 1877
date: label: date made
content: 1877
name: label: designer
content: Barber, William
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: One (1) 50 dollar coin, pattern
label: Description (Brief)
content: United States, 1877
label: Description (Brief)
content: Obverse Image: Left-facing Liberty wearing a coronet. 13 stars.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Obversre Text: LIBERTY / 1877
label: Description (Brief)
content: Reverse Image: A modified heraldic eagle with a shield over chest, holding a double scroll, clutching arrows and branch. Rays and stars above eagle.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Reverse Text: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA / FIFTY DOLLARS / IN GOD WE TRUST / E PLURIBUS UNUM
label: Description
content: Some twenty years after the private sector had abandoned the idea of a fifty-dollar gold piece in the mid-1850s, the Philadelphia Mint considered the possibility of a federal coin of this denomination. There was even talk of a "union," or hundred-dollar coin, and a drawing or two has survived to suggest what the Mint had in mind. But in the end, no such coin was ever produced.
label: Description
content: The project went a bit farther in the case of the "half-union." Dies were prepared, the work of William Barber (father of the eventual Mint Chief Engraver Charles E. Barber).
label: Description
content: Barber's obverse and reverse designs look vaguely akin to Longacre's work for the double eagle. A few patterns were struck in copper and two in gold; the latter share a reverse die but each has a slightly different obverse die. The project was abandoned soon afterwards, as it became apparent that the new coin simply wasn't needed.
place: label: place made
content: United States
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: National Numismatic Collection
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content: Coins
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content: Numismatics
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content: Coins, Currency and Medals
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content: Legendary Coins
label: Exhibition
content: Value of Money
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
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, United States Mint
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1986.0836.0059
label: accession number
content: 1986.0836
label: catalog number
content: 1986.0836.0059
objectType: label: Object Name
content: coin
label: Object Name
content: pattern coin
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: gold (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: .3 cm x 5.11 cm; 1/8 in x 2 in