The Louisiana Purchase Exposition gold dollar is a commemorative coin issue dated 1903. Struck in two varieties, the coins were designed by United States Bureau of the Mint Chief Engraver Charles E. Barber. One variety depicted former president Thomas Jefferson, and the other, the recently assassinated president William McKinley.
About Louisiana Purchase Exposition gold dollar in brief
The Louisiana Purchase Exposition gold dollar is a commemorative coin issue dated 1903. Struck in two varieties, the coins were designed by United States Bureau of the Mint Chief Engraver Charles E. Barber. One variety depicted former president Thomas Jefferson, and the other, the recently assassinated president William McKinley. The coins did not sell well, and most were later melted down. The Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the United States, and today forms much of the center of the country. Much of the area near the Mississippi River was explored by French explorers in the 17th and 18th centuries. In 1682, René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, claimed the entire area drained by the river for France, naming it Louisiana for Louis XIV. Although most French territory in the Western Hemisphere was lost in the French and Indian War, the Mississippi basin did not pass to the victors in that war as it had been secretly transferred to Spain by the 1762 Treaty of Fontainebleau. The U.S. and France agreed on a price of 60 million francs, plus 20 million more to pay claims by American citizens against France, which paid for some 828,500 square miles of land. The treaty was signed on April 30, 1803, and, although there was some question as to whether there was constitutional power for such a purchase, the American Senate ratified the treaty on October 20,1803. The United States took formal possession of the territory two months later. In 1801, President Thomas Jefferson learned of the pacts, and sent former Virginia senator James Monroe to France to assist American Minister Robert Livingston in purchasing the lower Mississippi; Congress appropriated USD 2 million for the purpose.
Congress passed authorizing legislation for an exposition; the bill was signed by President McKinley on March 3, 1901. The bill in question authorized 250,000 gold one-dollar pieces to be paid over to the exposition organizers as part of the appropriation, upon posting a bond that would fulfill the requirements of the legislation. The price for each variety was USD 3, the same cost whether sold as a coin, or mounted in jewelry or on a spoon. In 1915 the coins recovered, regaining their issue price by 1915; they are now worth between a few hundred and several thousand dollars, depending on condition. They were not the first American commemorative coins, but they were the first in gold. The coin was authorized by Congress on June 28, 1902, when President Theodore Roosevelt signed an appropriations bill that included a USD 5,000,000 rider to subsidize the Louisiana Purchaseexposition. The legislation did not specify the wording placed on the coins, leaving the decision to be placed on their coins to the discretion of the Secretary of the Treasury, Anthony Swiatek, who was involved in the distribution of the 1892 Columbian half-cent coin. In 1903, Congress authorized an issue in 1902, and exposition authorities, including numismatic promoter Farran Zerbe, sought to have the coin issued.
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