| Description: |
A lovely example, with needle sharp strike, rich satiny lustre, and superb eye appeal.
Definitely finer than typically encountered at the MS-65 grade, this outstanding gem will
be just right for an advanced type set or, for that matter, anyone who enjoys owning a
numismatic treasure. Over a long period of years this has been considered by many to be
the most beautiful of all circulating coin designs.In 1905, President Teddy Roosevelt,
historically the president who took the most active interest in our coinage designs, was
disappointed with the mundane state of America’s coinage designs. He had only recently
taken an interest in ancient Greek coins which he had seen on display, and lamented the
fact that the currency of his era was plain and uninspired by comparison. Accordingly,
Roosevelt contacted his long time acquaintance, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and asked him to
redesign the entire U.S. coinage spectrum, from the small bronze cent up to the large gold
double eagle. Saint-Gaudens, America’s most admired sculptor, kept his studio in
Cornish, New Hampshire (just a couple of hours from our offices in downtown Wolfeboro),
where he prepared sketches and working models of his ideas. By the summer of 1907,
Saint-Gaudens had nearly completed the work on the Indian $10 design as well as the new
$20 design, which he based on his statue of Victory, part of the Sherman Victory Monument
which stands today in New York City’s Central Park. On August 3, 1907, Saint-Gaudens
succumbed to cancer without ever seeing an example of his work in a legal tender format.
His work was finished by his assistant, Henry Hering. Meanwhile, a great "war”
(Roosevelt called it his "pet crime”) had broken out between the Mint and Charles
Barber on one side, and President Roosevelt on the other. Barber was upset that Roosevelt
had unkind words for his dime, quarter, and half dollar designs (which had circulated as
current coin of the realm since 1892), and he was also incensed that an outside artist had
been chosen to redesign the coinage. Barber protested that the high relief of the dies
would prevent the coins from striking, and on and on, causing Roosevelt to state that the
MCMVII $20 coins would be produced if it took all day to strike just one coin! Despite
Barber’s shenanigans, the coins were eventually produced to the tune of several hundred
pieces a day, though not without difficulties, as each coin needed three blows from the
dies to be rendered to its full advantage. In time, some 11,250 High Relief MCMVII double
eagles were produced to Teddy Roosevelt’s satisfaction. Barber then redesigned the dies,
making them flatter in depth and considerably less dynamic in appearance, remaining thusly
through the demise of the series in 1933.
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