I posted this a long time ago but this is the last one I needed. I have all 15 of them. I bought the 1911-D, Strong D years ago. The 1911 D is a variety coin, having both a strong D and a weak D Mint mark. They were issued from 1908 to 1929 but from 1916 to 1924 they were not produced. The designer was Bela Leon Pratt, a Boston sculptor. It was a new type of coin, having no raised edge, and the main devices and legends are sunken below the surface of the coin. Pratt took his design for the eagle from his teacher’s $10 gold coin of 1907. That Coin was actually designed by Saint-Gaudens and engraved by Adolph A Weinman. In the eagle from the $10 1907 Gold coin was taken from the reverse of Theodore Roosevelt, 1905 Inaugural medal. As we all know, Saint Gaudens Designed a few coins and including the $20 gold piece. Adolph Weinman Later designed the Liberty Walking Half Dollar and the Mercury Dime. Because of the inclusive design, the public thoroughly rejected this coin, resulting in a lack of circulation and a number of them being melted. Even though the mint has a capability of producing higher vintages, they did not the highest vintage is the 1913 with 722,000. The reason this design was rejected by the public was the general feeling that germs would get caught in the inclusive design and be passed to make people sick as it was handled. This fear was totally unfounded. Very few people save the coin for their collections and that has resulted in a series with a relatively few example surviving in higher grades. In the two pictures above. If you look below the two lowest leaves at the very end of the branch the Eagles claws on you can see a very faint D. so now I have the entire Indian head series, including all varieties. I decided to get the small D because it’s the only variety in the series.
