Lafayette dollar
United States | |
Value | 1 United States dollar |
---|---|
Mass | 26.73 g (412.5 gr) |
Diameter | 38.1 mm (1.5 in) |
Edge | reeded |
Composition | |
Silver | 0.77344 troy oz |
Years of minting | 1899 (a 1900 date appears on the coin) |
Mintage | 50,026 (less 26 assay coins and 14,000 melted) |
Mint marks | None. All specimens struck at Philadelphia Mint without mint mark. |
Obverse | |
Design | Conjoined busts of Washington and Lafayette |
Designer | Charles E. Barber |
Design date | 1899 |
Reverse | |
Design | Equestrian statue of Lafayette |
Designer | Charles E. Barber |
Design date | 1899 |
The Lafayette dollar was a silver coin issued as part of the United States' participation in the Paris World's Fair of 1900. Depicting Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette with George Washington, and designed by Chief Engraver Charles E. Barber, it was the only U.S. silver dollar commemorative prior to 1983, and the first U.S. coin to depict American citizens.
Beginning in 1898, prominent Americans sought to erect in Paris a monument to Lafayette, a Frenchman who fought in the American Revolutionary War. Among these supporters was Chicago businessman Ferdinand Peck, whom President William McKinley chose as commissioner-general to the exposition. Peck made the monument proposal a part of the American plans for Paris, and appointed the Lafayette Memorial Commission to raise funds for it. A part of this fundraising was the one-dollar commemorative coin, approved by Congress on March 3, 1899.
Conjoined busts of Washington and Lafayette appear on the
Background
Gilbert du Motier de La Fayette was born on September 6, 1757, to
In 1775, while on military duty in Metz, Lafayette received word of the American Revolution in the Thirteen Colonies. The young officer quickly came to believe that the American cause was noble.[3] On learning that the Second Continental Congress lacked funds, Lafayette hired a ship at his own expense and in 1777 sailed for America, though he initially received a cold reception from the Congress. So many foreign officers had sought to be a part of the Continental Army that its commanding general, George Washington, asked that no more be engaged. Lafayette's application, which sought no pay, met with eventual success. Congress had received a letter from the American envoy to France, Benjamin Franklin, stating that Lafayette's family was wealthy and influential. Franklin urged Congress to accommodate Lafayette, and also keep him safe and out of the action lest his death harm the American cause.[3]
Congress dutifully voted in July 1777 to commission Lafayette as a major general, and sent him to meet Washington. The two men formed a very close relationship despite a quarter-century difference in age. Franklin's wish to keep Lafayette safe was frustrated by the young man's desire to be where battles raged, and he was wounded at the
May this immense Temple of Freedom ever stand, a lesson to oppressors, an example to the oppressed, a sanctuary for the rights of mankind! And may these happy United States attain that complete splendor and prosperity which will illustrate the blessings of their Government, and for ages to come rejoice the departed souls of its founders.
Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, speech to the committee sent to take leave of him, 1784[4]
Lafayette returned to France after 1781, a national hero in both countries. He returned to the United States in 1784, his last visit for 40 years. In France, he involved himself in politics, favoring a constitutional monarchy. He was given office and commands after the French Revolution, but was captured by the Austrians in 1792, remaining in captivity for five years. After Napoleon arranged his release, Lafayette remained on his estates and away from politics during the Emperor's rule. After the restoration of the monarchy in 1815, he again engaged himself in politics, sitting in the Chamber of Deputies.[5]
In 1824, the American Congress voted unanimously to have President
Inception
In March 1898, a resolution was introduced in Congress for a commission to erect a monument to Lafayette in Paris on behalf of the United States. The bill passed the Senate, and hearings were held before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. Chicago businessman and philanthropist Ferdinand Peck testified in support of the bill, which though favored by the committee was not considered by the House due to higher priorities during the Spanish–American War.[8]
Later in 1898, President
Fundraising to build the Lafayette monument was a major component of the commission's work, and it sought to involve American schools and schoolchildren in the project. October 19, 1898—the 117th anniversary of Cornwallis's surrender at Yorktown—was proclaimed the first "Lafayette Day" by 42 governors or commissioners of education of the states or territories. Although President McKinley did not issue a similar proclamation, he did praise the plan in a letter printed in the press. Special ceremonies in honor of Lafayette (along with appropriate lesson plans) were observed in many schools, and pupils were called upon to donate cents in honor of the French patriot. A total of $45,858.30 was obtained from the events at the schools; those institutions were furnished, on the next Lafayette Day (intended to be annual), with ornate receipts, signed by Dawes and meant as momentos to descend to posterity.[10]
Another proposed means of paying for the statue was a commemorative coin. In early 1899, the commission sought enactment of legislation granting it an appropriation of $50,000 in the form of 100,000 commemorative half dollars, that could be sold to the public at a premium. Such a method had helped to finance (though with mixed success) the 1893
Preparation
Once the bill passed, Bureau of the Mint Chief Engraver Charles E. Barber took personal charge of the project, seeking to avoid the delays and disputes that had marked the two previous commemoratives, the Columbian half dollar and the Isabella quarter.[14] On March 24, 1899, Mint Director George E. Roberts wrote in a letter that the Lafayette Memorial Commission was contemplating having, on one side of the coin, a representation of the new monument. Barber responded the following day to Philadelphia Mint Superintendent Henry Boyer, referencing that letter and asking for a sketch of the monument.[15]
By April 12, 1899, the chief engraver had obtained from commission secretary Thompson a preliminary sketch of the monument—an equestrian statue by Paul Bartlett. Barber sketched other designs, including one with Lafayette's 1784 prayer for the prosperity of the United States. He also created one showing a standing figure of Lafayette, based on a statement by Thompson that they might omit the horse. Barber's concepts showing an equestrian statue for one side, and jugate heads of Lafayette and Washington for the other, would form the basis for the eventual coin. Roberts quickly approved Barber's sketch of the two heads, and without consulting the commission leaked the information to the American Journal of Numismatics, which printed it in its April 1899 issue.[16]
On May 23, 1899, Barber wrote to Roberts that he planned to base the Washington bust (on the obverse) on the well-known 1785 bust of the first president by Jean-Antoine Houdon, and upon an early medallic use of the Houdon bust, the 1786 "Washington Before Boston" medal by Pierre-Simon-Benjamin Duvivier. The Lafayette bust (also on the obverse) was to be based on an 1824 medal of Lafayette by François-Augustin Caunois.[15]
Peck and other commission members were not satisfied with the design proposals, and suggested some of their own. Barber denigrated these in a letter to Roberts on June 8. Peck had proposed that only the faces of Washington and Lafayette be shown, with no depiction of the rest of the head. Barber stated, "I am of the opinion that the heads of Washington and Lafayette should be treated from the sculptor's standpoint, and every effort be made to represent them with a grandeur and dignity commensurate with the position they fill in the Nation's history, which certainly could not be done if they are to be shown peeping out of a half moon."[17] At the instructions of Roberts, Barber went to New York and met with Peck over two days on June 14 and 15. Afterwards, Barber reported to the Mint Director, "I think we will hear no more of the Lafayette prayer" and that Peck now appreciated that the space available for a design, even on a silver dollar (the largest US coin) was limited, "and as it is the desire of the Committee [commission] to have the monument displayed, the prayer will have to find some other place".[18] Although Barber indicated that the decision of the commission to represent the statue without its pedestal represented progress toward the point where he might engrave dies, "I learned in New York that the work of the sculptor must be submitted to a committee in Paris who will have entire charge of the monument, and the sculptor's work has to be changed in any and every detail until it meets the approval of this Committee of Frenchmen ... to me it looks as if it might be sometime in 1900."[19]
On June 20, 1899, Barber submitted the final designs for the coin. They were approved by Director Roberts on July 1.
Design
The obverse of the Lafayette dollar features jugate, or conjoined, heads of Washington and Lafayette. Slabaugh noted Barber's account that the busts were based on the sculpture by Houdon and the medal by Caunois, but, "possibly these did have some effect on the design but it has always been my belief that the immediate source or idea for the design was the Yorktown Centennial medal of 1881."[21] Swiatek and Breen contended that although the ultimate ancestor of Barber's depiction of Washington was the Houdon bust, the source of the Lafayette bust and the format of the obverse "was beyond doubt Peter L. Krider's Yorktown Centennial Medal (1881)".[22] Krider, a Philadelphia engraver not employed by the Mint, issued a number of tokens and medals in the 1870s and 1880s.[23] "United States of America" and "Lafayette Dollar" appear at the top and bottom of the obverse of the coin.[24]
The reverse is based on an early sketch of the statue of Lafayette by Bartlett. It depicts a mounted statue of Lafayette, riding left. Barber's monogram does not appear on the coin, but the name "Bartlett" is inscribed on the base of the statue. Also on the base, and extending below it, is a palm branch. The reverse inscription, "Erected by the youth of the United States in honor of Gen Lafayette/Paris 1900" is a tribute to the school fundraising efforts that took place in 1898. Swiatek and Breen pointed out that even if one grants that the 1900 date was intended to be that of the exposition and the erection of the statue, the coins would still violate the 1873 act, that required the date of mintage to appear on the coins, and thus "the Lafayette dollars are technically undated and therefore illegal!"[23][24]
On the reverse, Lafayette holds a sword, extended upwards.[24] Bartlett described the version of the statue that Barber worked from: "Lafayette is represented in the statue as a fact and a symbol, offering his sword and services to the American colonists in the cause of liberty. He appears as the emblem of the aristocratic and enthusiastic sympathy shown by France to our forefathers."[25] Swiatek and Breen noted, "We may take Lafayette's pose on the statue, as depicted on the coin, to represent him in triumphal procession rather than charging against the enemy—note his sheathed sword, like a Highland pipe major's baton, serving as a standard rather than brandished unsheathed as a weapon."[22]
Barber's design for the Lafayette dollar has often been criticized. Swiatek and Breen complained about the "lifeless head of the President [Washington]".
Production and aftermath
All Lafayette dollars were struck at the Philadelphia Mint on December 14, 1899, the centennial of the death of George Washington.[23] The Philadelphia Public Ledger reported,
Present at this small Lafayette dollar ceremony were several Mint officials, members of the Lafayette Memorial Commission and a few members of the press. After Miss Gleary [the coining press operator] removed the first Lafayette dollar struck, she presented it to Mint Superintendent Henry Boyer. Mint Chief Engraver Charles E. Barber then inspected it. It was then shown to Robert J. Thompson, secretary of the Memorial Commission, and then given to Director of the Mint George E. Roberts. It was placed in a coin or medal case and brought back to Washington, D.C., by Mr. Roberts, to be given to President William McKinley. The coin was then to be sent in an elaborate $1,000 presentation case, to be given to the president of the French Republic.[28]
Once the ceremony at the Philadelphia Mint had concluded, striking of the Lafayette dollar continued on an older coinage press capable of minting eighty pieces per minute, or 4,800 per hour. A total of 50,026 pieces were struck, including 26 coins laid aside for inspection and testing at the 1900 meeting of the United States Assay Commission.[29]
The first
The commission was plagued by a number of financial difficulties. In January 1900, sculptor Charles Henry Niehaus questioned why $150,000 was the fundraising target of the commission, as no equestrian statue had ever cost more than half that.[31] The commission was sued by architect Henry Hornbostel, demanding fees for designing a pedestal for Bartlett's statue. The out-of-court settlement reimbursed him for his expenses.[32]
The commission was tardy in giving the final order for the statue to Bartlett, so late that it was impossible to have the final bronze piece ready in time; a one-third model was only completed in May. According to Q. David Bowers, "the French are at home in such problems."
Once the coins were minted, the commission began sales at $2 each. After February 1900, when the commission moved its offices from Chicago to Paris, sales were handled by the American Trust & Savings Bank of Chicago. Only small numbers were sold to coin collectors.[34] Sales, conducted through the bank, continued for several years. Prices initially dropped on the secondary market—the pieces could be purchased for $1.10 in 1903—and thousands may have been released into circulation, or were spent by purchasers in hard times.[35] By 1920, the market price passed the original issue price, and thereafter prices rose steadily, reaching $3.50 by 1930, $5 at the height of the commemorative coin boom in July 1936, $13 by 1950, $55 by 1960, and $650 by 1975.[36]
Fourteen thousand pieces were returned to the Treasury, and were held in $1,000 sacks. This followed poor sales of the new coin in Paris—only 1,800 sold there; some 10,000 were returned to the United States. They were held for many years. In 1945, Omaha coin dealer Aubrey Beebe learned about the coins from government records and enquired, only to be told that the coins had been recently melted.[37]
The Lafayette dollar is the first American coin to depict a US citizen.
Collecting
In 1925, numismatist George H. Clapp discovered a Lafayette dollar that slightly differed from published descriptions. He researched the matter further over the following decade, and discovered two additional varieties. These exist because multiple dies, for both obverse and reverse, were used in striking the Lafayette piece, and the dies were not identical. Swiatek, writing in 2012, noted a fifth die combination he had discovered, and examined images of hundreds of Lafayette dollars he owned or that were on the Internet. He reported that two varieties combined for more than 90% of the specimens, with the remaining ones much rarer. Because of this, he speculated that the dollars were struck on at least two machines, not one as usually reported, with the rarer varieties the result of replacement dies being inserted as the original ones wore out. The differences are minor (for example, whether the M in "America" is raised or even with the A that precedes it on the obverse, and details of the palm branch on the reverse) and the coin is rarely collected by die type, meaning that little premium value attaches to the less common varieties.[39]
The coin has been counterfeited from time to time. Various techniques have also been used to make genuine specimens shinier to deceive collectors, including polishing, a process that damages their surfaces and patina.[43]
References and bibliography
- ^ a b Slabaugh, p. 17.
- ^ Slabaugh, pp. 17–18.
- ^ a b c d Slabaugh, p. 18.
- ^ Adams, p. 35.
- ^ Slabaugh, pp. 18–19.
- ^ Slabaugh, pp. 17, 19.
- ^ Bowman, Bridget (December 29, 2014). "Bernardo de Gálvez y Madrid's Very Good Year". Roll Call. Archived from the original on December 31, 2014. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
- ^ Peck, p. 169.
- ^ Peck, pp. 169–170.
- ^ Peck, p. 170.
- ^ Bowers, pp. 113–114.
- ^ Lange, pp. 122, 126.
- ^ Bureau of the Mint, pp. 88–89.
- ^ Taxay, p. 14.
- ^ a b Flynn, p. 248.
- ^ Taxay, p. 15.
- ^ Flynn, pp. 248–249.
- ^ Taxay, p. 17.
- ^ Taxay, pp. 17–18.
- ^ a b c Taxay, p. 18.
- ^ Slabaugh, p. 15.
- ^ a b c Swiatek & Breen, p. 123.
- ^ a b c Swiatek & Breen, p. 126.
- ^ a b c Swiatek, p. 59.
- ^ a b c d Bowers, p. 115.
- ^ Burdette, p. 11.
- ^ Vermeule, pp. 101–102.
- ^ a b Swiatek, p. 60.
- ^ Bowers, pp. 116, 119.
- ^ Swiatek & Breen, pp. 69, 126–127.
- ^ "Lafayette's statue's cost" (PDF). The New York Times. January 23, 1900.
- ^ Swiatek & Breen, p. 128.
- ^ Field etc., pp. 66–67.
- ^ Swiatek & Breen, pp. 127–128.
- ^ Flynn, p. 202.
- ^ Bowers, p. 120.
- ^ Swiatek, p. 65.
- ^ Bowers, p. 489.
- ^ Swiatek, pp. 60–65.
- ^ Yeoman, p. 1049.
- ^ Bowers, p. 116.
- ^ Swiatek, pp. 66–67.
- ^ Swiatek, pp. 65–67.
Books
- OCLC 191237505– via Google Books.
- Bowers, Q. David (1992). Commemorative Coins of the United States: A Complete Encyclopedia. Wolfeboro, NH: Bowers and Merena Galleries, Inc.
- Burdette, Roger W. (2006). Renaissance of American Coinage, 1905–1908. Great Falls, Va.: Seneca Mill Press. ISBN 978-0-9768986-1-0.
- Bureau of the Mint (1904). Laws of the United States Relating to the Coinage. Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office. OCLC 8109299– via Google Books.
- Field, Cynthia R.; Gournay, Isabelle; Somma, Thomas P. (2013). Paris on the Potomac: The French Influence on the Architecture and Art of Washington. Vol. 3. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press. ISBN 978-0-8214-4239-5– via Google Books.
- Flynn, Kevin (2008). The Authoritative Reference on Commemorative Coins 1892–1954. Roswell, GA: Kyle Vick. OCLC 711779330.
- Lange, David W. (2006). History of the United States Mint and its Coinage. Atlanta, GA: Whitman Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7948-1972-9.
- Peck, Ferdinand W. (1901). Report of the Commissioner-General for the United States to the International Universal Exposition, Paris, France, 1900. Vol. 1. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office – via Google Books.
- Slabaugh, Arlie R. (1975). United States Commemorative Coinage (2nd ed.). Racine, WI: Whitman Publishing (then a division of Western Publishing Company, Inc.). ISBN 978-0-307-09377-6.
- Swiatek, Anthony (2012). Encyclopedia of the Commemorative Coins of the United States. Chicago: KWS Publishers. ISBN 978-0-9817736-7-4.
- Swiatek, Anthony & ISBN 978-0-668-04765-4.
- ISBN 978-0-668-01536-3.
- ISBN 978-0-674-62840-3.
- Yeoman, R.S. (2018). A Guide Book of United States Coins 2014 (4th ed.). Atlanta, GA: Whitman Publishing, LLC. ISBN 978-0-7948-4580-3.