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Photos courtesy of Bowers and Merena
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Last sold at public auction by Sotheby's for $825,000 in December of 1996. Until recently, with the addition of platinum coins to the U.S. Mint's creations, this coin held the record for number of blows (nine) required during striking. The pet project of President Theodore Roosevelt, it was made as a replacement for the "atrociously hideous" coinage that was circulating at the time. He was of course, referring to that which we know as "Barber" coinage today. Augustus St. Gaudens was commissioned to re-design the coinage of our great nation so that it would rival the "beauty and dignity" of the Ancient Greek coins. Many collectors today feel that he accomplished exactly that goal. Not many would disagree that this is a very "pretty" coin whether in Ultra High Relief, High Relief or Standard Relief. Apparently, 24 of the Ultra High Relief $20 Gold Pieces (Double Eagles) were struck during February and March 1907 in proof format. Each required nine blows at 172 tons apiece in a hydraulic press! Of the Ultra High Reliefs, two were melted, two are in the Smithsonian and one is in the American Numismatic Society. It is interesting to note that the Eliasberg specimen brought $242,000. Because of obvious "stacking problems" with a coin such as this, the relief was lowered with the Roman Numeral date retained. This High Relief version was struck in two major varieties known as the flat-rim and the wire-rim. Five impressions of the die were required for this High Relief version. As it turned out, even this reduced relief was not enough to satisfy bankers as to their stacking property, so the relief was lowered once again, and this time the Arabic Numerals obverse was introduced. On a side note, Dennis Rodman, the famous, colorful basketball sports hero has recently become the proud, new owner of one of these coins. |
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