Included in the 4 Piece Gold Type Set MS63 you will receive one of each of the below:
- 1925-D $2.50 Indian Gold Quarter Eagle MS63
- 1909-D $5 Indian Gold Half Eagle MS63
- 1932 $10 Indian Gold Eagle MS65
- 1927 $20 Saint Gaudens MS63
Note: The coins you receive will be certified by either NGC or PCGS, based on availability.
In this set you’ll get one of each of the 4 quintessential designs from America’s Golden Age of Coinage.
In 1904, President Teddy Roosevelt called for a redesign of American coinage, as he didn’t believe the artistry was on par with other countries. He pressed the Mint to engage with his friend, sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens to breathe new life into five coins, the $20 Double Eagle, $10 Eagle, $5 Eagle, $2.50 Quarter Eagle and the 1c Cent.
St. Gauden was only able to complete designs for the $20 Double and $10 Eagle before his death in 1907, thus he was never able to redesign the $5, $2.50 or the Cent. Even the designs for the $20 Double Eagle and $10 Indian required subsequent work to make them suitable for coining.
US Mint officials originally assumed that the design selected for the $20 Double Eagle would be scaled down for the $10, $5, and $2.50 gold pieces. However, in 1907 President Roosevelt decided that the $10 Eagle would have a different design than the $20 Double Eagle. Saint-Guaden’s death in 1907 complicated the matter, as while President Roosevelt gave specific direction for different designs on the $20 and $10 pieces, no attention or direction was given for the $5 or 2.50 pieces.
Getting all necessary details of the $20 design onto the smaller $5 and $2.50 sizes caused significant delays in their development. Then in early 1908, the President’s friend, Dr. William Sturgis Bigelow who was a lover of art, had the idea that the commercial needs of the country required coins that could “stack” evenly, and preserve as much of the design of the coins as possible.
The lines of the design, figures, and letters would therefore be depressed, or incused, into the coin, allowing the coins to stack. Such design would introduce a novelty in coinage that was both artistic and practical at the same time.
Bigelow had a friend in Boston that was a sculptor, Bela Pratt, that worked on creating the new incuse designs. Pratt used the Eagle from St. Guaden’s $10 piece as the inspiration for the eagle on the $5 and $2.50 pieces. However, rather than using the female Indian portrait of Liberty from the same design, Pratt used a photograph of an unknown male Indian from his own photo collection.
In this collection, you’ll get both of St. Gauden’s original designs - the $20 Double Eagle and $10 Indian, as well as both of Bela Pratt’s incuse designs of the $5 Indian and $2.50 Indian. Not only do you get a complete 4pc Indian Type Set, but you’ll also get two coins struck at the Philadelphia mint and two coins struck at the Denver mint.
