Bill Jones' Classic Commemorative Gold Set
$2.5 PANAMA-PACIFIC 1915-S

Owner Comments:

Many collectors and art critics believe that Charles Barber’s design for the obverse of the Panama-Pacific quarter eagle is the best work that he achieved during his long tenure as the U.S. mint’s chief engraver. Mixing whimsy with classical images, the design features Lady Columbia riding a hippocampus, which is a mythical creature that has the head of a horse and tail of a dragon. The design is symbolic of the commerce that would flow through the Panama Canal. In her left hand Lady Columbia holds a caduceus, the symbol for medicine. This imagery marked the achievements of medical personnel who were able to control the spread of deadly diseases, like yellow fever, that doomed previous attempts to build a canal across the Isthmus of Panama.

George Morgan designed the reverse that is dominated by the “defiant eagle.” Morgan designed the “defiant eagle” when he experimented with it on a few pattern coins in the late 1870s. The best known pattern coin that included the “defiant eagle” was Morgan’s “school girl” pattern silver dollar which was struck in 1879.

In keeping with the artistic tastes of the day, Barber and Morgan produced the dies for the Panama-Pacific quarter eagle with a duller, matte-like finish instead of the conventional mint bloom surfaces that appear on most coins. A careful examination of the fields of this coin reveals a myriad of fine lines instead of smooth surfaces. This alternate die preparation results in markedly dull surfaces on many examples. The present coin has rich satiny surfaces which makes it very choice for the MS-66 grade.