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Celebrating Saint-Gaudens Beloved Indian Head Design

2021-11-01 16:00:00
Celebrating Saint-Gaudens Beloved Indian Head Design
Posted in: News, News

Celebrating Saint-Gaudens Beloved Indian Head Design

This week, over one hundred years ago, the beloved $10 Indian Head eagle series officially entered circulation. As one of just two designs crafted by the renowned sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, the $10 Indian Head is celebrated for launching the American Coin Renaissance, which led to the complete overhaul and reinvigoration of America’s coinage. With the Coin Renaissance and designs like the Indian Head, America’s money became not just a means of financial transaction, but stunning pieces of art that could be enjoyed by the public as well.

The first roots for the $10 Indian Head were planted in 1904, when President Theodore Roosevelt wrote a letter to his Secretary of the Treasury, Leslie Shaw. Roosevelt, always opinionated and eager to speak his mind, complained that:

"I think the state of our coinage is artistically of atrocious hideousness. Would it be possible, without asking permission of Congress, to employ a man like Saint-Gaudens to give us a coinage which would have some beauty?"  

The “Saint-Gaudens” Roosevelt referred to was none other than Augustus Saint-Gaudens, one of the most respected sculptors and artists in American history. Saint-Gaudens was famous for creating numerous monuments and memorials to the American Civil War, as well as crafting a statue of Abraham Lincoln that still stands in Chicago and is widely considered to be the finest portrait statue in the country. Earlier in his career, Saint-Gaudens had expressed interest in crafting coins and medallions as well, but a poor experience with the U.S. Mint had soured him on the idea. However, at Roosevelt’s request, and with the assurance that he would have complete artistic freedom on the project, Saint-Gaudens agreed to take up the project of redesigning the $20, $10, $5, $2.50 gold pieces, as well as the cent. 

Saint-Gaudens began with two designs, one that depicted Lady Liberty striding forward holding a torch aloft, accompanied by an image of an eagle in flight on the reverse. The other featured a bust of Liberty wearing a Native American feather headdress, giving it the name “Indian Head.” Meanwhile, the reverse for that design featured a bald eagle perched atop a sheaf of arrows encircled by an olive branch. In letters between Saint-Gaudens and President Roosevelt, the sculptor expressed hope that the Indian Head would go on to grace the double eagle, stating “I like the head with the headdress… that I should very much like to see it tried not only on the one cent piece but also on the twenty-dollar gold piece, instead of the figure of Liberty.” As the $20 double eagle was the largest gold coin available, it was widely considered to have the greatest prestige attached to it, and thus Saint-Gaudens wanted his preferred design to be featured there. 

Ultimately, however, the striding Liberty design won out and was selected for the $20 double eagle, while the Indian Head design went to the $10 eagle. Sadly, Saint-Gaudens passed away in 1907 due to cancer, making these two the only coins he finished designing. His work, however, has been hailed as some of the greatest designs in the history of American numismatics. Their creation galvanized the Mint to redesign every coin it issued over the next several decades, spawning the American Coin Renaissance. Some of the artists and sculptors employed by the Mint at this time, such as Adolph Weinman and James Earle Fraser, were trained by Saint-Gaudens himself. 

Among the $10 Indian Head series, some issues are of course more difficult to find than others. The original 1907 pieces were struck in high relief as per the wishes of President Roosevelt and Saint-Gaudens, but the Mint struggled so much to produce these pieces that they only struck 500 examples before flattening the design. The 1911-D and 1920-S are also notably rare, with only 30,100 and 126,500 struck respectively. Proof issues, like the 1911 with only 95 coins struck, were only struck to collector demand. Finally, as the series came to a close in 1933, nearly the entire $10 Indian Head issue of that year was melted down under Executive Order 6102, leaving behind only a dozen examples from a mintage of 312,500. 

While collecting the $10 Indian Head series can be a challenge, Rare Collectibles TV offers numerous examples of the series in stunning Mint State condition. With our comprehensive inventory, you can begin building a gold eagle collection worth celebrating.