Indian Head Eagle

We have President Theodore Roosevelt to thank for the Indian Head Eagle gold coin, our nation’s last $10 gold coin struck for circulation.

Specifications

 * Designer: Augustus Saint-Gaudens
 * Obverse Design:
 * Reverse Design:
 * Edge:
 * Weight: ±16.7 grams
 * Diameter: ±26.8 millimeters
 * Composition:  Gold (90%), Other (10%)
 * Dates Minted: 1907-1933

Background
No, President Roosevelt didn’t design this coin, but it was at his urging that our nation’s coinage undergo a design overhaul in order to raise the artistic merit of U.S. coins. Well, the wholesale coin design upgrade didn’t take place– our nation’s copper and silver coins didn’t get the Teddy Roosevelt treatment– but three of our nation’s gold coins DID get an innovative facelift: the Indian Head $5 gold coin, the St. Gaudens $20 gold coin, and of course, the Indian Head eagle of 1907-33.

History
What happened was this: when President Theodore Roosevelt took office, he took stock of our nation’s circulating coins, and found them wanting. In fact, he considered our nation’s coinage to be a disgrace, especially compared to the coinage of other nations, such as Great Britain and France. Roosevelt felt that U.S. coins should take a backseat to no other nation’s coinage when it came to eye-appeal. So Roosevelt lost no time in procuring the services of one of the world’s most prestigious sculptors, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, to come up with a design for our nation’s two largest-denomination gold coins: the $20 double eagle and the $10 eagle. Of course, the design that Saint-Gaudens came up with for the $20 gold piece is considered by most to be the most beautiful coin the U.S. Mint has ever struck, bar none. But Saint-Gauden’s other design, the Indian Head $10 gold piece, was stunning in its own right.

Staying true to Roosevelt’s mandate that U.S. coins should be on a par with the beautiful and boldly-struck coins of ancient Greece, Saint-Gaudens created a $10 gold coin with an ultra-bold, high-relief left-facing bust of Miss Liberty (or Victory, depending on whose story you want to believe) her head adorned in a stunning fanned-out Indian war bonnet. Above the bust, an arc of stars. On the reverse, a perched eagle in repose, boldly faces west.

Like the new $20 gold piece of 1907, the 1907 Indian Head eagle coin was struck in ultra-high relief. In fact, to achieve this effect, each coin had to actually be struck multiple times. Such high-relief coins take on an engaging medallic type of look– which of course, was the point: coins with the boldness and beauty of medals! The only problem is, high-relief coins tend not to stack well. Not only that, it takes a lot more time to strike them, not to mention accelerating wear and tear on the dies!

As it turned out, Augustus Saint-Gaudens died in August of 1907, before he could see either of his two new gold coin masterpieces released to circulation! But he certainly left his imprint on U.S. coinage in a big way– and with just two coin designs! Incidentally, it was left to Boston sculptor, Bela-Lyon Pratt to design the only other Teddy-Roosevelt-approved coins: the Indian Head $2.50 and $5 gold coins (notable for their incuse, as opposed to high-relief designs). Still, despite the magnificent job Saint-Gaudens had done with designing the new $20 and $10 gold pieces, it was left to Mint Chief Engraver, Charles Barber, to fix the “ultra-high relief” problem of Saint-Gauden’s $20 and $10 gold coins first released in 1907. Ironically, Barber was responsible for many of the U.S. coin designs CURRENTLY circulating, that President Roosevelt deemed sub-par (namely, the Liberty Head nickel, Barber dime, Barber quarter and Barber half dollar)! As the story goes, Barber was none too happy about his coin designs being so de-graded by Roosevelt, and there was some professional jealousy between he and Saint-Gaudens. This may or may not be true. In any event, Barber modified Saint-Gauden’s original 1907 $20 and $10 gold pieces, so that the end result was much lower-relief coins.

Collecting
A little over 500 of the original, high-relief 1907 Indian Head eagles were struck. Today they are valued at $7,500 in Very Fine if the are the “wire edge” type, $15,000 in Very Fine if they are the “rolled edge” type without the period. The rest of the 1907 Indian Head eagles, the low-relief type, retail $425 in Very Fine, $850 in MS-60– the much lower values being due to the fact that some 239,000 were struck.

Despite the mini-sub-types I’ve already mentioned, this series is actually divided into two major sub-types: the “No Motto” of 1907-08, and the “In God We Trust” type of 1908-33. At first, the Indian Head gold eagle did not contain the motto “In God We Trust,” as was the case with the 1907 $20 double eagles as well. It seems that President Roosevelt himself squashed the idea of t this traditional motto appearing on our nation’s newly-designed coins. In his mind, the motto “In God We Trust” appearing on the face of our money, bordered on sacrilege! The American courts did not agree, so in 1908, the motto was added to the Indian Head eagle (as well as to the Saint-Gaudens double eagle).

Besides the two 1907 varieties of the high-relief eagles, there are three other rare dates in the series, though none of these other three have noticeably low mintages. The 1920-S Indian Head eagle retails $6,000 in Very Fine and has a mintage of 126,500. The 1930-S Indian Head eagle also retails $6,000 in Very Fine and has a mintage of 96,000. But then again, it’s recorded that the mintages of the 1920-S and the 1930-S, in particular, were nearly all melted, which accounts for their high values today.

Then there is the 1933 Indian Head eagle. It actually had quite a healthy mintage of 312,500. But in March 1933, with the Great Depression raging, President FRANKLIN D. Roosevelt took our nation off the gold standard. He ordered that no more gold coins be struck, and indeed, made even owning a non-collectible U.S. gold coin against the law! Virtually the entire mintage of 1933 $10 gold coins was melted, but not before about 40 got released into circulation. In 1952, a small hoard (just under 30) of mint-state 1933 gold eagles were discovered. Since then, one occasionally turns up here and there. The 1933 Indian Head eagle doesn’t have nearly the rarity, noterity, and romance of the 1933 Saint-Gaudens double eagle, but it’s a well-known U.S. coin rarity nonetheless. It retails $18,000 in Very Fine, $185,000 in MS-60!

Of course, when President Franklin Roosevelt’s suppressed the striking and circulation of gold coins, that meant the end for the Indian Head $10 eagle gold coin. Since 1933, there has never been another U.S. gold coin struck for circulation, much less a circulation $10 gold coin (commemorative and bullion-issue eagles are another story).

As a final note, and huge irony, 2007 marks the 100th anniversary of the release of the Indian Head eagle and the Saint-Gaudens double eagle gold coins, both of which exist thanks to the push for beautifully-rendered U.S coins by President Theodore Roosevelt. The year 2007 will ALSO be the year in which President Teddy Roosevelt appears on the face of a circulating U.S. coin for the first time– that being the 2007 South Dakota state quarter which will bear a reverse showing Mount Rushmore (where one of the stone faces, of course, is Theodore Roosevelt).

We can only wonder what Teddy Roosevelt would think of the artistry of the state quarter bearing his likeness!

Mints

 * Philadelphia Mint (No mintmark)
 * Denver Mint (D mintmark)
 * San Francisco Mint (S mintmark)