10 Dollars, Pattern, United States, 1907
date: label: date made
content: 1907
name: label: mint
content: U.S. Mint, Philadelphia
label: designer
content: Saint-Gaudens, Augustus
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: One (1) 10 dollar coin, pattern
label: Description (Brief)
content: United States, 1907
label: Description (Brief)
content: Obverse Image: Left-facing Liberty wearing a feather headdress, 13 stars along top edge of coin.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Obverse Text: LIBERTY / 1907
label: Description (Brief)
content: Reverse Image: Eagle with wings folded standing on top of a bundle of arrows and branch.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Reverse Text: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA / E PLURIBUS UNUM / TEN DOLLARS
label: Description
content: In 1905 President Theodore Roosevelt asked sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens to lead an effort to redesign American coinage. Saint-Gaudens developed a design that many consider the most beautiful American coin ever conceived. In addition to this $20 coin, Saint-Gaudens also redesigned this $10 coin, or eagle. Although the design has always been considered subordinate to his design for the $20 coin, it deserves close scrutiny. It bears witness to the labors of a gifted artist, working in ill health and under great pressure, and creating beauty almost at his final moment.
label: Description
content: Saint-Gaudens was working against time and knew it. By the time he turned his attention to the ten-dollar coin, he was already gravely ill, with only a few months to live. So he recycled some earlier ideas. He reused a head of Victory that he had originally created for the Sherman Monument in New York City, adding a war bonnet. The result was fanciful, and Saint-Gaudens's logical equation of Liberty with a Native American was no more convincing than Longacre's version on the Indian Head cent.
label: Description
content: But from an artistic point of view, it worked. The eagle on the reverse was also recycled, this time from President Roosevelt's inaugural medal. The coin shown here was struck in modest quantity-about thirty-two thousand pieces. However, all but forty-two were ultimately melted down.
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
label: See more items in
content: Coins
label: See more items in
content: Numismatics
label: See more items in
content: Coins, Currency and Medals
label: See more items in
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: United States Mint
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1985.0441.2097
label: catalog number
content: 1985.0441.2097
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: 2 mm x 27 mm; 3/32 in x 1 1/16 in