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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;kaparthy, post: 15515, member: 57463&quot;]And, speaking of the $20 of Augustus Saint Gaudens, here is a picture of the statue that he cribbed the design from:</p><p><a href="http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/z/x/zxk105/group14/nike.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/z/x/zxk105/group14/nike.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/z/x/zxk105/group14/nike.html</a></p><p><br /></p><p>This statue was excavated only in the 1870s, I think, and was not widely known when Saint Gaudens used it first for his statue of General Sherman and then for his coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>It is a nice coin, but typical of American designs, it is a knock-off.&nbsp; In fact, most American coins are re-drawn Greek and Roman coins.&nbsp; If you take the &quot;New Style Tetradrachm&quot; of Athens&nbsp; ---</p><p><br /></p><p>(<a href="http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/greece/attica/athens/Thompson_028.jpg" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/greece/attica/athens/Thompson_028.jpg" rel="nofollow">www.wildwinds.com/coins/greece/attica/athens/Thompson_028.jpg</a>)</p><p>(<a href="http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/greece/attica/athens/Thompson_028a.jpg" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/greece/attica/athens/Thompson_028a.jpg" rel="nofollow">www.wildwinds.com/coins/greece/attica/athens/Thompson_028a.jpg</a>)</p><p>among many others --- </p><p><br /></p><p>and change the helmet to a native American war bonnet, you have the same coin.&nbsp; The Large Cent, the Seateds, they are copies of coins that the US Mint has had in it own collection of ancients.&nbsp; In colonial times, educated people could read Greek and Latin and many of them owned classical coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>The Standing Liberty Quarter might have no predecessors.</p><p><br /></p><p>Barber&#039;s series is a direct copy of the contemporary French silver coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>Nice coins, all of them, to be sure, but they seem astounding to us only in comparison to what we have now.</p><p><br /></p><p>Michael[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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