| Show real artistic merit in american gold coinage the first gold coins issued by the infant united states writes gwendo line keene in the boston transcript came in 1790 from the philadelphia mint still oui leading one there were eagle and half eagles 10 and 0 a double eagles are the highest the government has ever gone ex capt when we celebrated the ian I 1 an ama pacific exposition with a 51 50 piece the ones minted until just now were from quarter eagles to doubles but we have minted dollars 3 and 4 very rare we started right in with the head of liberty and an eagle in the beginning she was a rather countrified looking lass and the eagle was a bit scrawny but he soon swelled out to heraldic size and the lady took on more poise they changed very little in the next years it was the days of the forty biners that brought in the novelties tiring of gold dust exchange individuals in san francisco denver salt lake city and other centers melted up the gold dust with enough alloy to keep it together and put out gold coins some of these were very fine copies of the government issues distin gul gui only by the name of the issuer so small that sometimes it fitted in Ll liberty bertys s coronet others were frankly original such as one of the 50 slugs of 1851 issued by augustus humbert in california it is eight sided and easily dented because of its co considerable weight you X au hold it as you should hold all rare coins gingerly in thumb and finger by the edge by 1907 1007 we were getting artistic and that bear ear the beautiful double eagle of A augustus ugustus saint gaudens was minted along with new designs for the three other gold pieces As first struck the baclit gaudens was in quite high relief because the face was distinctly concave it has a full length liberty striding forward and an eagle in full flight but it nearly raised the roof saya says mr pond sec see detary of the boston Numis numismatic matle society because it left off in god we trust this had been on since civil war days when a clergyman wrote to the secretary of the treas ury calling hta his attention to the fact that recognition of our dependence upon almighty god has been over ove r looked on our currency it came out first as god our trust saint gaudens coin had to be flattened oat out after the first issue because it t stack up well but the design has been used ever since with in god ve lne trust put back almost immell abely we are the only large nation today that uses any religious refer ence oa on its coins but in early times the french used blessed be the name of the lord in latin and later in french god protect france |
