Object Details
- designer
- Barber, William
- Description (Brief)
- One (1) 50 dollar coin, pattern
- United States, 1877
- Obverse Image: Left-facing Liberty wearing a coronet. 13 stars.
- Obversre Text: LIBERTY / 1877
- Reverse Image: A modified heraldic eagle with a shield over chest, holding a double scroll, clutching arrows and branch. Rays and stars above eagle.
- Reverse Text: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA / FIFTY DOLLARS / IN GOD WE TRUST / E PLURIBUS UNUM
- Description
- Some twenty years after the private sector had abandoned the idea of a fifty-dollar gold piece in the mid-1850s, the Philadelphia Mint considered the possibility of a federal coin of this denomination. There was even talk of a "union," or hundred-dollar coin, and a drawing or two has survived to suggest what the Mint had in mind. But in the end, no such coin was ever produced.
- The project went a bit farther in the case of the "half-union." Dies were prepared, the work of William Barber (father of the eventual Mint Chief Engraver Charles E. Barber).
- Barber's obverse and reverse designs look vaguely akin to Longacre's work for the double eagle. A few patterns were struck in copper and two in gold; the latter share a reverse die but each has a slightly different obverse die. The project was abandoned soon afterwards, as it became apparent that the new coin simply wasn't needed.
- Credit Line
- U.S. Department of the Treasury, United States Mint
- 1877
- ID Number
- 1986.0836.0059
- accession number
- 1986.0836
- catalog number
- 1986.0836.0059
- Object Name
- coin
- pattern coin
- Physical Description
- gold (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: .3 cm x 5.11 cm; 1/8 in x 2 in
- place made
- United States
- Related Publication
- Zoomable Image and Details
- Glossary of Coins and Currency Terms
- Related Web Publication
- http://americanhistory.si.edu/coins/glossary.cfm
- See more items in
- Work and Industry: National Numismatic Collection
- Coins
- Numismatics
- Coins, Currency and Medals
- Legendary Coins
- Exhibition
- Value of Money
- Exhibition Location
- National Museum of American History
- National Museum of American History
- Record ID
- nmah_472685
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746ad-fcf5-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
