Most of you know James B. Longacre designed the Indian Head Cent and a lot of you know nothing on the coin denoted he was the designer of the coin until 1864 when the initial "L" was added to the lower ribbon behind the neck. A few of you may even know he designed the two-cent piece, the nickel three-cent coin, the five-cent Shield Nickel first struck in 1866 and the three-dollar gold piece which was struck from 1854 through 1889. Do you know his middle name was Barton? Now, back to the Indian Head Cent. Take a good magnified look at the shield on the reverse of the 1860 cent (it's at the top between the two oak branches). Compare it to the shields on the reverses of the two-cent pieces and the Shield Nickels. Longacre liked the idea of putting a shield on the reverse of a coin and experimented with creating a better looking design. He was not the first to create a shield on a business strike coin. Many pre-colonial, colonial, post-colonial and federal issue coins as-well-as tokens were designed with shields on them. In the past many family coat-of-arms were shields with specific shapes and designs on them. .Such was the pre-colonial Lord Baltimore coins. Other pre-colonial coins with shield reverses include the 1776 Immune Columbia coppers. Post-colonial New Jersey adopted the Immune Columbia shields on the reverse of their 1786, ' 87, and '88 copper coins. Even some speculative patterns were designed with shield reverses including the "Getz Patterns" of 1792. Clinker
I found this to be very interesting and thanks for posting it :thumb: lot I did not know in there De Orc
Thanks clinker, Another good one.Maybe you could do trivia on some of the other US coin designers.It's amazing to me how many different well known coins were designed by just a handful of artists.
And the Liberty Double Eagles. You forgot one. Some of us really like his coins and have a newsletter named after him.
Wikipedia says maybe: "There is a popular rumor about the design of this coin, which states that Mr. Longacre used his daughter as his model for the Indian likeness on the cent. Unfortunately, this information has not been authenticated in United States Mint files." SCV History says yes: "The designer, James B. Longacre, had designed the first of the small cents and in 1858 designed a pattern Indian head cent using his daughter, Sarah, as the model with a feathered headdress." Coinfacts says no:"The design on the front of the coin features Miss Liberty wearing an Indian headdress. Urban legends have it that Longacre's daughter, Penny, modeled the headpiece for her father and that she is the reason we call the One Cent piece a "Penny." Sadly, neither legend is true." Longacre himself said:"Mr. Longacre, who was the Engraver at the Philadelphia Mint, once said that the model for the face was a Greek statue of Venus." (U.S.Mint site)
Yes, you are right, and there's that "shield" on the eagle's breast of the $20 gold double eagles. You are also right about the $1 gold and the silver trimes. Now that brings us to another revelation: the silver trime is pne of the world's fewest coins that have a shield on the obverse of the coin. Plus, he not only designed the silver trimes, he also designed the nickel three-cent pieces. Clinker
I always print out educational post like this one. Some day I'll put them all together and make a book about all the things I've learned here. And just think, I'll charge all of you to buy back your own information.
