Indian Head eagle
The Indian Head eagle was a USD 10 gold piece or eagle struck by the United States Mint continuously from 1907 until 1916, and then irregularly until 1933. The obverse and reverse were designed by sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, originally commissioned for use on other denominations. Many Indian Head eagles were melted by the government in the late 1930s; the 1933 issue is a particular rarity, as few were distributed.
About Indian Head eagle in brief
The Indian Head eagle was a USD 10 gold piece or eagle struck by the United States Mint continuously from 1907 until 1916, and then irregularly until 1933. The obverse and reverse were designed by sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, originally commissioned for use on other denominations. He was suffering from cancer and did not survive to see the coins released. Many Indian Head eagles were melted by the government in the late 1930s; the 1933 issue is a particular rarity, as few were distributed. The omission of the motto “In God We Trust” on the new coins caused public outrage, and prompted Congress to pass a bill mandating its inclusion. The Indian Head Eagle was struck regularly until 1916,. and then intermittently until President Franklin Roosevelt directed the Mint to stop producing gold coins in 1933. In 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt wrote to Secretary of the Treasury Leslie Mortier Shaw complaining that U.S. coinage lacked artistic merit. He suggested that the treasury engage a private artist to prepare new coin designs. At Roosevelt’s direction, the Mint hired Saint- Gaudens to redesign the cent and the four gold pieces: the double eagle, eagle, half eagle, and quarter eagle. The Liberty Head design had been first struck for the eagle in 1838; the last addition to the Liberty Head gold series was the double Eagle, first struck in 1850. The designs of those pieces had remained unchanged for more than 25 years, and they could be changed without an act of Congress.
In 1905, Mint Engraver Charles E. Barber engraved the obverse of Roosevelt’s inauguration medal, while his assistant George T. Morgan engraved the reverse. Roosevelt disliked the work and engaged Saint- gaudens for an unofficial medal commemorating the inauguration. In early 1907, he wrote to Saint-gaudens proposing that an Indian war bonnet be added to the obverses of the cent. In February 1907, Roosevelt tentatively decided to use the headdress for thedouble eagle for the coin. The double eagle would show a Liberty striding forward with a flying eagle on the reverse, with a left-facing bust of Liberty wearing an Indian feather headdress. The President was undecided about which design to use for the gold pieces, which were still intended to have a uniform appearance, and he proposed using the head dress for both. He decided on a design featuring a standing bald eagle that had been developed for the Saint-Gsaudens double eagle USD 20 coin, while the Obverse features a bust ofLiberty wearing a head of Liberty. The reverse of the USD 10 coin was struck on August 3, 1907, and Roosevelt insisted that the new eagle be finished and struck that month. The coin was too high in relief for the mint to strike readily, and it took months to modify the design so that the coin could be struck by one blow of the Mint’s presses. In 1908, Mint Chief Engravers Charles Barber added the words and made minor modifications to the design.
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This page is based on the article Indian Head eagle published in Wikipedia (as of Oct. 31, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
