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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;calcol, post: 24663617, member: 77639&quot;]Looking at an upcoming world coin auction by Heritage, I stumbled across a striking Swiss pattern that seemed vaguely familiar.&nbsp; Then it occurred that there is a U.S. pattern that is very similar.&nbsp; So, I looked in the Judd book, and there it was.&nbsp; Both are pictured below.</p><p><br /></p><p>The U.S. pattern is by Anthony Paquet (1814-1882) in 1859.&nbsp; Paquet was assistant engraver at the U.S. Mint.&nbsp; Mostly he designed medals and a few patterns, but there are some rare double eagles with his reverse design that made it into circulation.&nbsp; The pattern below shows Miss Liberty sitting, barefoot, with her right hand supporting an upright fasces with ax head.&nbsp; On her left is a shield resting on an olive branch with an eagle behind it.&nbsp; This piece is J-257 and is gilt copper.&nbsp; Same design is seen on 1859 half dollar patterns which are more numerous and cheaper … but not cheap!&nbsp; I think it’s a nice design although Liberty’s face should have been rendered younger and less stern.&nbsp; Shame the design never made it into circulation.</p><p><br /></p><p>The Swiss pattern is by Leopold Wiener (1823-1891), resident of Belgium, who was an engraver, sculptor and politician.&nbsp;&nbsp; The pattern is dated 1873, is 20 francs and made of gold.&nbsp; It shows Helvetia (Switzerland’s equivalent of Miss Liberty) sitting barefoot, with her right hand supporting an upright sword.&nbsp; On her left is a shield with an oak stump behind it.&nbsp; The distant mountain on the far left appears to be the Matterhorn.&nbsp; Wiener’s name is engraved near the rim on the lower right quadrant of the obverse.&nbsp; Unfortunately, this beautiful design was not adopted for circulating coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>Not only are the obverses of the two coins similar, but so are the reverses:&nbsp; large leaf wreath with denomination and date in large characters in the center.</p><p><br /></p><p>So, was Wiener inspired by Paquet’s design?&nbsp;&nbsp; Possible but doubtful.&nbsp; They probably didn’t know each other in Europe.&nbsp; Paquet was from Hamburg in northern Germany and immigrated permanently to the U.S. in 1848 when Wiener was 25 years old.&nbsp; The total production of Paquet’s patterns of this obverse design appears to be no more than 200-300, nearly all of them half dollars.&nbsp; It’s possible that some made it to Europe and were seen by Wiener.&nbsp; It’s also possible that Paquet and Wiener corresponded as they were both coin engravers, but I know of no evidence of this.</p><p><br /></p><p>Paquet was undoubtedly inspired by Gobrecht’s seated Liberty design, which first appears as a pattern in 1836, and then on circulating coinage in 1837.&nbsp; This design was on millions of U.S. coins by 1873, the date of Wiener’s pattern.&nbsp; And many of these coins would have made it to Europe.&nbsp; There were Swiss coins depicting a seated Helvetia as early as 1850, but her right hand is outstretched; no sword is present.&nbsp; Hard to say if this design was directly inspired by Gobrecht’s.&nbsp; My guess is the Swiss engraver responsible for seated Helvetia with outstretched hand was very familiar with Gobrecht’s seated liberty design.&nbsp; However, the later engravers responsible for U.S. and Swiss patterns that placed weapons in the ladies’ right hands were probably not aware of each other’s designs.&nbsp; They simply went one step further with the existing seated lady design of the circulating coins produced in their own regions.</p><p><br /></p><p>If you’re interested in owning one of these coins, you need some wealth …they’re both 5-figure coins!</p><p><br /></p><p>Cal</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1572416[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]1572417[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]1572418[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]1572419[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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