The Gold Coin's Meaning Essay

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The 1899 Liberty Head $5 Gold Half Eagle

The 1899 Liberty Head $5 Gold Half Eagle was designed by Christian Gobrecht, the third Chief Engraver of the U.S. Mint (1840-1844). The coin was circulated with a mintage of 1,710,630 and a metal content of 90% gold and 10% copper. Its diameter was 21.6 mm and weighed approximately 8.36 grams (EBTH). The Liberty Head was just one production of the U.S. half eagle that was produced for circulation for more than a century. This paper will describe the history of the Liberty Head Gold Half Eagle designed by Gorbrecht and what it signified.

The half eagle was the first gold coin minted by the U.S., authorized by the Coinage Act of April 2, 1792 (United States Mint); the first rendition of the coin was the Turban Head design, created by Robert Scot. Minted through 1807, the Turban Head design showed Lady Liberty with a cap on her head on the obverse and an eagle with the caption “E Pluribus Unum” on the reverse side. “E Pluribus Unum” is Latin for “Out of Many, One”—meaning that the newly formed United States was recognizing in its currency the character of its nation: it consisted of several different colonies and peoples who had come together to establish a common law, common good, and common way of life in the new land. By 1866, the caption would change, however, and with good reason—the U.S. had just fought a bitter Civil War that had rendered the “Out of Many, One” thesis in two: North had fought South and South had fought North in the bloodiest battle ever seen on American shores. Worse than the Revolutionary War, the Civil War had pitted brother against brother in some cases, state against state. It had concluded with the assassination of the Great Emancipator and thus ended what should have been a happy resolution with a horrible stain on America’s history. The caption that was placed on the half eagle in 1866 was meant to reflect the sentiment expressed by Lincoln in his 2nd Inaugural Speech: “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.” Lincoln’s appeal to Americans and to their sense of religious faith—and the fact that an assassin’s bullet cut short the implementation of the vision he beheld for America’s future—prompted the Mint to place “In God We Trust” on the back of the half eagle in 1866.

Gobrecht designed the Liberty Head Half Eagle in 1839. Worth $5 at the time, the coin now sells for anywhere between $350 and $16,000 depending on the condition of the coin.

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Its melt value alone (the value of the gold in the coin) is $295, based on the spot price of gold today—which indicates the extent to which the nation has been racked with inflation over the past nearly two centuries: a $5 gold coin in 1839 is now worth 100x times that in 2018 Federal Reserve Notes (which, it should be noted, cannot be traded in for gold—that window was closed long ago). The coinage without motto was minted from 1839 to 1866. It depicted a fatter-faced Lady Liberty, with hair flowing down the back of her head. The coinage with motto was minted from 1866-1908 and pictured the slimmer, classical beauty Lady Liberty.

The Liberty Head Half Eagle designed by Gobrecht replaced the Classic Head design which had actually been worth more in gold than its price (the effect of more inflation) and the reduction in gold used for the minting was meant to reflect this. Gobrecht’s Liberty Head reduced the size of Lady Liberty’s profile on the obverse: 13 stars representing the 13 colonies still surrounded the profile, but the profile was now sleeker, more Romanesque, hair neatly bobbed behind the head with two locks dangling from behind the ear and at the nape of the neck. The neck was slimmer and the face more trim. The Lady wore a crown that identified her name: LIBERTY—and below her neck was marked the year of her coinage—1899.

On the reverse, the American Eagle, holding three arrows in one claw and the olive branch in the other, signifying that the U.S. was ready for either war or peace, whatever was necessary, had wings outstretched between the lettering identifying the owner of the coin—United States of America—and the denomination: Five D. On a banner above the beak of the eagle were the words “In God We Trust”—a hopeful sentiment expressed by the U.S. Mint at a time when the Era of Reconstruction was getting underway and a new era of scalawags, carpetbaggers, Robber Barons, Industrialization, Great Migration….....

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Works Cited

EBTH. “1899 Liberty Head $5 Gold Half Eagle.” https://www.ebth.com/items/9693717-1899-liberty-head-5-gold-half-eagle

Lincoln, Abraham. “2nd Inaugural Speech.” https://www.bartleby.com/124/pres32.html

United States Mint. “Coinage Act of April 2, 1792.” https://www.usmint.gov/learn/history/historical-documents/coinage-act-of-april-2-1792

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