Set Description
The 1907 Ultra High Relief Double Eagle is widely hailed as the one of the most beautiful coins in history. But beyond its breathtaking beauty, it is a great rarity born of a unique collaboration between President Theodore Roosevelt and his hand-picked designer, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, the most famous American sculptor of his day.
The double eagle’s obverse features a full-length portrait of Liberty grasping a torch in her right hand and an olive branch in her left. She is shown in full stride with rays of sunlight behind her, the word LIBERTY above her and the U. S. Capitol Building to the left of her flowing gown. Encircling her are 46 stars—one for each state in the Union at that time. The date, expressed in roman numerals, MCMVII, appears at right and the designer’s monogram (ASG) appears below it. The coin’s reverse depicts a breathtaking eagle in flight—perhaps the most spectacular likeness of the nation’s official emblem ever to grace a U. S. coin or medal. Below this magnificent bird is the sun with its rays extending upward; above it, in two semicircular tiers, are the inscriptions UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and TWENTY DOLLARS.
When Roosevelt first saw Saint-Gaudens’s final designs for the coins, he was so pleased that he instructed the Mint to produce specimens that were completely faithful to the original models. In his letter to the Mint Director, Roosevelt wrote of his motives.
I want for once at least to have had this nation, the great republic of the West ... do something in the way of artistic expression that shall rank with the best work of the kind that has ever been done.
Following Roosevelt’s commands, the extremely high relief matched that of the sculptor’s plasters. The edges of these first pattern coins are roughly twice as thick as those on the standard specimens eventually produced for circulation, and the fields are unusually concave, connecting directly with the edges without a border. The Mint struck a single piece with a plain edge and about twenty others with E PLURIBUS UNUM on the edge. The coins possess astonishing detail—a feat achieved by receiving nine blows apiece from the dies at a pressure of 172 tons.
This design was of course impractical for regular production, but the Mint did push forward with a reduced High Relief version of the coin. Ultimately, this too proved impractical, and a low relief version was issued later in 1907 that remained in production until 1933.
In 2009, the US Mint reprieved the Ultra High Relief Double Eagle, issuing a .9999 fine gold version with reduced diameter for one-year only. So enduring is the legacy of the original coin that the Mint’s re-issue shared Roosevelt’s original goal, made clear in a statement from the Mint’s website:
"The 2009 Ultra High Relief Double Eagle Gold Coin will show the Nation and the world the very best the United States Mint has to offer. The 21st century vision of the United States Mint, combined with technological advances, enabled the United States Mint to realize the previously unattainable goal of making the coin accessible to all Americans."