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What if coin portraits came to life?
Romankow
Posts: 147 ✭✭✭
I have always wondered what coin portraits would look life if they were real people. We all know that coin portraits of our US Presidents (Lincoln, Washington, etc.) and other historical figures (Ben Franklin, Susan B. Anthony) were based on real people in the first place. But how about the Morgan Dollar? The Barber dime/quarter/half-dollar? The $20 Liberty Head? What if these portraits came to life? So I reached out to an artist and had her draw me her vision of the woman on the Morgan Dollar. I have attached it for you here. Please let me know your thoughts, and interest in seeing more of these types of illustrations.
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``https://ebay.us/m/KxolR5
If we were all the same, the world would be an incredibly boring place.
Tommy
``https://ebay.us/m/KxolR5
her.... perhaps a more slender proboscis... but otherwise, great idea. I hope you have your friend do more.
Cheers, RickO
I thought you meant something more like this;
See http://www.doubledimes.com for a free online reference for US twenty-cent pieces
"'The statement has been frequently made that the head on the standard silver dollar was that of Miss Williams. This statement is not strictly true. Miss Williams possessed a Grecian profile, which was considered almost ideal for a typical head of Liberty, and chiefly on that account she consented to pose for the engraver while preparing the design. This is borne out by the fact that the entire head is much more mature in appearance than would be expected in a girl 18 years old. That was her age at the time she posed. . . "'Miss Williams was born in Philadelphia. Her mother was a Southerner, the daughter of Dr. Arthur N. Willess of Maryland. His daughter married Henry Williams of Philadelphia, and went with him to that city.'"
The Morgan dollar may very well be the most popular 19th century coin for collectors. Due to its large (and some would say unnecessary) mintages over the years from 1878 through 1904 and again in 1921, many collectors can enjoy Morgan dollars at a price much lower than for many other popular series.
The coin, named for its engraver George T. Morgan, features the profile of Anna Willess Williams, a schoolteacher who posed for sketches that Morgan initially intended for use on a half dollar. In fact, Morgan did use Anna Williams' portrait on a pattern half dollar of 1877, but when the hurry-up order for a new silver dollar came in 1878, the portrait was pressed into use for the larger coin. After several changes were made, Morgan's "new" silver dollar design was chosen and coinage began the same year.
Although now Morgan dollars are considered quite beautiful and the profile of Anna Willess Williams quite attractive, at the time the portrait on the coin was considered by some to be ugly and even obese. In fact, one account said that Williams lost her job when it was discovered that she was featured on the coin, as posing for artists was not considered an appropriate occupation.
However, dislike of the portrait could not stop the inflow of silver from mines in the West or the output of millions of Morgan dollars from the various United States mints. The Bland-Allison Act and later the Sherman Silver Purchase Act ensured that the government would purchase tons of silver from western silver merchants and coin it into silver dollars, thus creating a huge subsidy for the miners of the American West. As there was little use for so many silver dollars in commerce, many were simply placed into storage, in many cases not to be seen again until the fabulous Treasury releases of the mid 20th century. At that later time, these now "antique" coins found ready homes with collectors and their rediscovery made collecting Morgan dollars one of the most popular pursuits in numismatics today.
Had she been paid on a royalty basis for the use of her portrait, Williams would have been the wealthiest woman in America. "Every man, woman or child who has a silver dollar carries the handsome profile of the Philadelphia schoolteacher, Miss Anna W. Williams," the Mail and Express said. "Her classic features have been stamped upon millions of the silver disks."
It all began with the passage of the notorious Bland-Allison Act of February 22, 1878, which authorized the secretary of the Treasury to purchase two to four million dollars worth of silver each month to be coined into silver dollars. Not since 1873 had silver dollars been minted for domestic use, and even then the Seated Liberty design was considered outmoded. Treasury officials decided that a fresh, vibrant design was needed for the new silver dollar as the country entered the most dynamic period in its history.
Certainly there was no shortage of sources of inspiration. The official Illustrated Catalogue of the Centennial Exhibition, Philadelphia, 1876, has a frontispiece showing Columbia in a liberty cap giving wreaths to three other female figures representing Europe; Asia, and Africa, while with her other hand she holds an American flag.
Frank Leslie's Historical Register of the United States Centennial Exposition, 1876, opening with a chromolithograph of America clad in the stars and stripes, an elaborate helmet on her head, her costume covered with jewels.
It is entirely possible that George T. Morgan saw these images. In the early part of 1876 the Treasury Department secured, through communication with the Royal Mint of London, the services of the clever young designer and engraver. Upon his arrival in the United States, Morgan was assigned to the Philadelphia Mint, where in 1877 he created several varieties of pattern half dollars. His first major task was to prepare designs for a new silver dollar, which seemed likely to win authorization as the silver interests lobbied Washington for favorable legislation.
After intensive labor, Morgan completed the design for the reverse side of the coin. The elements themselves, an eagle and wreath, had been used on his pattern half dollars of the previous year. As executed by Morgan, they displayed a decidedly different interpretation than previous U.S. coins. The slender eagle with raised wings may have lacked anatomical perfection, but it did embody the concept of freedom without wearing the ridiculous shield seen on the birds engraved for other coins.
Morgan began with the reverse side of the coin out of necessity. Treasury officials wanted the designs readied as quickly as possible, and Morgan was not certain what he wanted to engrave for the obverse side. Perhaps he, too, had tired of the Seated liberty design, derived from the symbolic figure of Britannia with which he was so familiar. After due consideration, he decided to portray liberty as a goddess. Too much of a realist to be satisfied with a mere product of fancy, he determined the head should be a representation of a real American girl. Selected was one of his own designs from an 1877 pattern half dollar. Therein lies a story. . .
Upon his arrival in America in 1876, Morgan found a sympathetic friend in famous painter Thomas Eakins, who shared his penchant for realism. Eakins, a friend of the Henry Williams family of Philadelphia, introduced Morgan to Miss Anna Willess Williams, Henry's daughter. Morgan was immediately impressed with her face and studied it carefully.
Anna herself was an art student and understood the importance of finding a suitable model. After much persuasion by Eakins and her other friends, and the promise that her role as a model for a coinage design would be kept secret, she consented to serve as Morgan's model. Altogether there were five sittings at Eakins' home in November 1876.
Morgan was delighted with his model and said that her profile was the most nearly perfect he had seen in England or America. Williams' complexion was fair, her eyes blue, her nose Grecian and her hair, said to be her "crowning glory," was of golden color, abundant in quantity and light of texture. It was worn in a becoming coil, perhaps resembling Morgan's design for one type of the $4 gold piece, or "Stella."
Morgan later decided to add a cap as ornamentation befitting the "goddess" of Liberty. This design, used on pattern 1877 half dollars, was accepted for production of silver dollars, and in 1878 the Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Carson City mints turned out a total of more than 12 million silver dollars.
Williams' role as the model for the design remained a secret only until the summer of 1879, when a Philadelphia reporter revealed that she was in fact the "Silver Dollar Girl." The colorful name struck a responsive chord in the public. Williams was besieged with thousands of letters and visitors, which troubled her greatly. There were even offers of lucrative stage engagements, but Anna rejected them in favor of a teaching position at the House of Refuge. In 1891 she accepted a $60-a-month job as teacher of kindergarten philosophy at the Girls' Normal School.
Although the glare of publicity slowly faded, the Ladies' Home Journal still considered Williams a fascinating subject when it published her photograph in 1892. Four years later, the announcement that the goddess of Liberty was about to be married brought Williams into the limelight again.
Maybe it was the notoriety that caused the engagement to be broken. At any rate, the marriage never took place and Williams became increasingly reluctant to tell the story of how she came to be the model for the silver dollar. She much preferred to talk about her work as supervisor of Philadelphia's kindergarten schools.
Williams had retired from the school system when in December 1925 she sustained a fall and was confined to bed. On April 17, 1926, a stroke claimed the life of the famous "Silver Dollar Girl." The passing of Williams was noted by The Numismatist, which reported in May 1926: "An obituary told of a Philadelphia lady whose portrait had been reproduced hundreds of millions of times: 'Miss Anna W. Williams, of Philadelphia, a retired public school teacher, whose profile was used in preparing the design of the standard silver dollar in 1878, died in her native city on April 17. Death was due to apoplexy, induced by a fall she sustained last December and she had been confined to her bed since.
Never mind, TO posted an even better article.
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From Wikipedia ...
"By numismatic legend, the facial features of the goddess Liberty on the obverse of the Indian Head cent were based on the features of Longacre's daughter Sarah; the tale runs that she was at the mint one day when she tried on the headdress of one of a number of Native Americans who were visiting, and her father sketched her. However, Sarah Longacre was 30 years old and married in 1858, not 12 as in the tale, and Longacre himself stated that the face was based on a Statue of Venus in Philadelphia on loan from the Vatican. He did often sketch his elder daughter, and there are resemblances between the depictions of Sarah and the various representations of Liberty on his coins of the 1850s. These tales were apparently extant at the time, as Snowden, writing to Treasury Secretary Howell Cobb in November 1858, denied that the coin was based "on any human features in the Longacre family". Lee F. McKenzie, in his 1991 article on Longacre, notes that any artist can be influenced by many things, but calls the story 'essentially false' "
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