Augustus Saint-Gaudens - Sculptor &
Coin Designer
One of the most famous coins of all time is the Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle, which was minted from 1907 to 1933. It takes its name from the man who designed it - American sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848 - 1907).
Augustus Saint-Gaudens was born in Ireland in 1848, and was taken to the United States at the early age of six months when his parents emigrated. He was raised in New York City, where his artistic talents soon became apparent. He took art classes at the newly-established Cooper Union (a privately funded school which awards scholarships to all its students) and the National Academy of Design (founded in 1825).
Saint-Gaudens went to Paris and Rome for years to complete his artistic training, and when he returned to the United States in 1877 it was with a new bride. (He would maintain studios in both Paris and New York for the remainder of his career.)
It was also a decade or so after the Civil War, and time for monuments to be raised to the heroes of that war. Saint-Gaudens received his first major commission in 1876 - a statue of the Navy Admiral David Farragut, and soon established himself as the pre-eminent Civil War sculptor, adding President Abraham Lincoln, Robert Gould Shaw (colonel in command of the all-black 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry) and General William Sherman to his ouvre.
Saint-Gaudens was also an excellent teacher - he tutored young artists privately,and taught at the Art Students League of New York. He was an artistic advisor to the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 (which celebrated the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' discovery of the New World). He was also part of the MacMillan Commission – a group of architects and artists intent on accomplishing Pierre Charles L'Enfant's vision of the nation's capitol, Washington, DC.
Alison Frankel shares contemporaries' views of Saint-Gaudens in her book on the famous 1933 double eagle, called, appropriately enough, Double Eagle. He was "reedy and red-headed," had a "diffident manner and sly flashes of humor," and was "a notorious perfectionist...chronically late in completing commissions."
In 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt approached Saint-Gaudens to redesign the coins for the U.S. Mint. Prior to this time, this was the province of the Mint's chief engraver, but Roosevelt was dissatisfied with the coins and wanted designs that would rival the beauty of those of the ancient Greeks.
Saint-Gaudens accepted the commission to create designs for the $10 eagle and the $20 double eagle. Of these, his double eagle design is the most famous.
Unfortunately, even in 1905 Saint-Gaudens was a dying man. He had been diagnosed with cancer in 1900, and it had returned in full force by 1905. By 1907 he would be dead, without ever seeing his coins minted. Saint-Gaudens had sketched the design for the two coins - an Indian head for the eagle and the striding liberty for the double eagle - and his assistant, Henry Hering, sculpted the designs.
Despite the opposition of the Chief Engraver, Charles Barber (a long-time enemy of Saint-Gaudens), his eagle and double eagle coins were finally brought to fruition. The double eagle, indeed, has been called the most beautiful coin ever minted.
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