Three Steps: Thinking to Producing.
IGWT
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IGWT
Posts: 4,975 ✭
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Now, I must ask, do you own the drawing?
<< <i>The gov't owns the drawing. >>
But they don't own the coins...I mean patterns
Poor Liberty has an eagle head popping out of her hair in the drawing. That must have been a really bad hair day!
Thanks, Stone.
Nice! Poor Liberty has an eagle head popping out of her hair in the drawing. That must have been a really bad hair day!
The feathered headress was a much better idea!
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
presumably "Longacre F." stands for Longacre Fecit (Longacre 'made it')
www.brunkauctions.com
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
Noticing that the finished product isn't from the same die as the middle photo, I wonder how many they made.
New collectors, please educate yourself before spending money on coins; there are people who believe that using numismatic knowledge to rip the naïve is what this hobby is all about.
President, Racine Numismatic Society 2013-2014; Variety Resource Dimes; See 6/8/12 CDN for my article on Winged Liberty Dimes; Ebay
The middle photo is a hub trial, not a die trial. Longacre prepared two hub trials (each is unique) for the design. It's hard to tell from the photo, but the design elements are incuse as well as reversed (like you would expect to see on a die). This piece is a "snapshot" of one stage in Longacre's creative process for the 561. You'll also note that Longacre modified the design slightly by repunching the stars before striking the 561, and you can see scribe lines (circular, horizontal, and vertical) used to position the letters.
You'll see on the hub trial that the word UNION is not yet punched into the headdress. The phrase "union and liberty" alludes to Daniel Webster's famous speech made during the 1830 Webster-Hayne debate. Lincoln had adopted the concept as his political position (and, in fact, he had memorized Webster's speech and made use of it in his first inaugural address). Oliver Wendell Holmes (the literary father of the Supreme Court justice) wrote a poem by that title in 1861. It's hard for us to appreciate the full content of the three words "union and liberty" as used during that period in our history.
In 1867, Longacre advocated the use of aluminum for the 5c series (which was a metal with high intrinsic value at the time), and he prepared a pattern piece to help make his argument. He describes the piece and its purpose in correspondence to Secretary McCulloch through Director Linderman:
" . . . . I know not how far it may coincide with the present or future policy of the Government -- but it has appeared to me as a desideratum, that the portion of the circulating medium -- designated as fractional currency should possess an instrinsic value in the material of which it is composed, which it has not now.
If this view should be entertained now, or hereafter: it is important to find or suggest a material that would meet the exigency. The use of aluminum for the purposes of coinage, was suggested by its peculiar qualities as I became acquainted with them: especially when I ascertained that it was employed successfully in Paris for the purpose of striking medals.
. . . . These considerations have induced me to prepare for the purpose from dies designed and engraved by myself -- the accompanying specimens, corresponding in size with the coin above mentioned [the Half Eagle], in order to exhibit fully and fairly under the usual process of coining, the fitness of the metal for the requisite operations. . . ."
Letter from J. Longacre to H. McCulloch (June 12, 1867), quoted in D. Taxay, The U.S. Mint and Coinage at 245-46 (1966). Of course, the nickel advocates had their way, and the Mint continued production of the Shield 5c in copper-nickel alloy (75:25) through 1883. The aluminum piece that comes from "dies designed and engraved by [Longacre] [him]self," J-561, is not rare as far as patterns go, but it is far and away my favorite pattern for many reasons, including the elegance of the design indisputably created by Longacre's own hand and its place in numismatic history.
"Question your assumptions."
"Intelligence is an evolutionary adaptation."