Renaissance of American Coinage 1905-1908 (edició 2006)

In early 1905 President Theodore Roosevelt persuaded America's finest sculptor, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, to redesign the national coins. Although only two of the planned coins were completed, Roosevelt's support for the artistic-political collaboration opened a new era of creativity and expressiveness on American coins.Renaissance of American Coinage 1905-1908 describes the origin, design and initial striking of America's most beautiful coins ? the gold coins of 1907 and 1908. The story chronicles the long standing artistic feud between internationally known sculptor Saint-Gaudens and Philadelphia Mint engraver Charles Barber. This culminated in their reluctant cooperation to produce pattern coins of the new and strikingly beautiful designs ? each artist endeavoring to ?prove? his skills superior to the others. In telling this fascinating story author Burdette reveals hundreds of never before published letters, drawings and models. These documents completely alter conventional understanding of how the coins were created. The revised story is much richer, expansive and engaging that has been traditionally believed.The authoritative text and extensive illustrations have been hailed by historians, numismatists and collectors as the new benchmark for numismatic research. This book will be of interest to artists, coin collectors, museum curators and historians of American studies. This book will be indispensable to scholars of the early twentieth century and of the Theodore Roosevelt administration.