Indian Head Eagles 1907-1933

Theodore Roosevelt thought American coins lacked artistic merit, and in 1904 the Mint engaged the sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens to give new designs to the four gold coins and the cent. Roosevelt asked for a feathered Indian headdress on Saint-Gaudens's head of Liberty, which had been modeled for the cent, and in May 1907 the Mint settled that the eagle would carry that head with a standing eagle on the reverse. The head came from a model Saint-Gaudens had made, and not used, for the figure of Victory on his Sherman Monument in New York. The eagle had first been planned for the double eagle and closely resembles the reverse of the medal he made for Roosevelt's 1905 inauguration.

Saint-Gaudens was dying of cancer and passed away on August 3, 1907, before any coins were issued. Roosevelt ordered the eagle into production within weeks. The Mint, unable to strike the high-relief design in one blow on a coining press, made about 500 pieces on its medal press from the sculptor's original dies; these have a sharp edge with no true rim and are called Wire Rim coins. Barber then added a rounded rim to stop metal squeezing out at the edge, and some 32,000 Rolled Rim coins followed. On November 9, 1907 the new Mint Director, Frank Leach, had all but about fifty of them melted, because dies from lower-relief models finished by Saint-Gaudens's assistant Henry Hering were now in production. Those final coins, which lack the small periods of the earlier two, entered circulation around November 4, 1907.

The design left off IN GOD WE TRUST. Roosevelt considered the motto irreverent on money, and no law required it, but the omission caused a public outcry. Congress ordered the motto restored in May 1908, and Barber fitted it into the reverse field beside the eagle's breast, on the left. Philadelphia and Denver struck eagles both with and without the motto that year.

Eagles were struck every year through 1916. During World War I gold coins traded above face value and there was little need for new ones, so coinage stopped, and later issues came only in 1920 (San Francisco), 1926 (Philadelphia), 1930 (San Francisco), 1932 and 1933 (Philadelphia). In March 1933 Franklin Roosevelt halted the paying out of gold coins, and Executive Order 6102 of April 5 required them to be handed in, with exceptions for small amounts and for coins of special value to collectors. The Treasury melted millions of gold coins in the following years, including most of the 1920-S, 1930-S and 1933 eagles. Many of the gold coins known today, eagles among them, had been shipped to Europe before 1933 and came back later.

Obverse. Liberty faces left wearing a feathered Indian war bonnet with LIBERTY on its band. Thirteen stars arc across the top, and the date is below. Despite the headdress, the figure is Saint-Gaudens's Liberty, not a portrait of a Native American; the Native American man appears on Pratt's $2.50 and $5 coins.

Reverse. A standing eagle faces left, its feet on a sheaf of arrows that an olive branch twines through. The legend across the top reads UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, the value TEN DOLLARS is at the bottom, and E PLURIBUS UNUM sits at upper right. From mid-1908 the motto IN GOD WE TRUST occupies the left field, in front of the eagle's breast.

Edge. Raised stars instead of reeding: 46 from 1907 to 1911, 48 from 1912.

Mint mark. On the reverse. On motto coins, left of the arrows under the eagle; on the 1908-D No Motto, above the olive leaves near the eagle's feet. D is Denver, S is San Francisco; Philadelphia coins have none.

Telling the 1907 and 1908 types apart.

Things that cause confusion.

• Liberty or Indian. The $10 head is Liberty in a headdress; the $2.50 and $5 coins of 1908-1929 show a Native American man and have their whole design sunk into the coin. The $10 is in raised relief.
• 1908 with or without the motto. Check the field left of the eagle. Both kinds exist for 1908 Philadelphia and 1908-D; every 1908-S has the motto.
• Wire Rim or Rolled Rim. Both have periods. The Wire Rim's field meets the edge at a sharp angle; the Rolled Rim has a rounded border.

• 1907 Wire Rim: about 500 struck on the medal press, most given to officials. CoinWeek notes that figures of 500 to 550 have been cited.
• 1907 Rolled Rim: of some 32,000 struck, Roger Burdette's account has about fifty saved from the melt; Jeff Garrett at NGC gives 42.
• 1907 Rolled Rim proof: a satin-finish proof of the Rolled Rim design. Wikipedia, after Garrett and Guth, calls it unique; Jeff Garrett's NGC note describes two nearly identical specimen strikes, one from the estate of Mint Director Leach.
• 1907: 239,406 of the regular No Periods coins.
• 1908 No Motto (33,500) and 1908-D No Motto (210,000), with the 1908 Motto (341,370) and 1908-D Motto (836,500): the year of the motto change.
• 1911-D: 30,100 struck at Denver.
• 1920-S: 126,500 struck. Few were exported and most were melted after 1933, according to Garrett and Guth.
• 1930-S: 96,000 struck. NGC says eagles were hardly needed after the large 1926 coinage, few of these entered circulation, and most were melted.
• 1933: 312,500 struck, nearly all melted before release. Mike Fuljenz counts about forty survivors.
• Proofs: Philadelphia made proofs from 1907 to 1915. NGC records 116 for 1908 (catalogued here in matte and satin finishes), 204 for 1910 and 50 for 1914. Most have a dark matte finish; NGC and Wikipedia describe a brighter "Roman gold" finish on some 1908-1910 coins.

• Composition: 90% gold, 10% copper
• Weight: 16.718 grams
• Gold content: about 0.4838 troy ounce
• Diameter: 27 mm (Wikipedia gives 26.92 mm)
• Edge: 46 raised stars (1907-1911), 48 (1912-1933)
• Designer: Augustus Saint-Gaudens

The weight and fineness are those of the Liberty Head eagle it replaced. Only the design and the starred edge were new.