Another find from yesteryear..

Found about 20 coins packed away that I forgot I even owned. To think I thought it was bad walking into a room and forgetting why I did that

Nice to find lost treasures.

I’ll be posting them over the next few weeks or so. Please add anything about the coin that I might be missing that’s worth mentioning.

Indian Head Variety 3 - Bronze (1864-1909)
Not too bad for a coin that was circulated that’s 115 yrs old.

 

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Nice! It is amazing to me the age of the 100 plus years coins, the hands they have been through.

 

Wouldn’t it be great if they could talk. Where they been what they seen

 

Maybe, not so great come to think of it…

 

I don’t believe the person who modeled for the coin was an Indian. Not sure Longacre had a model.

If you look at Indian Head Half Eagles Pratt had an Indian model for that coin.

 

The obverse for the IHC is Liberty wearing a headdress, IIRC, there was no model. It is similar to Liberty wearing wings for the “mercury” dime.

 

Mint in 1907, 1908, and 1909. The Indian Head Penny was first minted in 1859. It depicts Lady Liberty dressed as an Indian princess in a war bonnet and was one of the first U.S. coins to feature a Native American. The word 'Liberty' is inscribed in the headband of the bonnet.

 

Thanks for the reply. So are the Half Eagles the only coin where an Indian model was used?

 

@Gold Hat …go to Wikipedia and read the “Design” section on the IHC. There is a tale, an inspiration and a supposition regarding who the obverse is on the coin, but no model per se.

 

The Wiki article answers this too.

 

I was just reading about the half eagle here. And a Princess she is by the way. The artist/ sculptor wanted it to be the most beautiful coin.
https://www.numismaticnews.net/.amp/collecting-101/pratts-indian-head-quarter-and-half-eagles

 

Pratt was an understudy of Augustus Saint-Gaudens. He was a talented artist for sure.

 

Yes it was very interesting. Art like no other.

 

Lady Liberty was a Greek figure. Up until the Morgan’s came along. She was it. The model for the Morgan’s was a school teacher Anna Willess Williams, who was later nicknamed the “Silver Dollar Girl.”

 

Elegance are both!

 

The history of these coins is really fascinating. I love history so I’m right at home.

 

I have so much still to learn with coins and it’s history. But coming along slowly.

 

Supposedly the model Longacre used was a profile from the statue "Crouching Venus". He used pretty much the same profile with a little modification on all of his coin designs that used a bust of Liberty.

 

This is the “inspiration” I referred to. The Wiki article explains all 3.