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FUN Signature US Coin Sale 1251 4-6 & 8-9 Jan 2017
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High Relief Double Eagles
1907 $20 High Relief, Wire Rim MS66 PCGS. CAC. Neoclassicism imitated Classical forms in a wide range of artistic endeavors from architecture to coinage. It was thought that by imitating the ancient Greeks, a stasis could be achieved in the various artistic forms. But rather than reaching a status quo and remaining there, Neoclassicism evolved just as all other art movements have. The difference, however, is Neoclassicism moved backward in a fifty-year period from the 1740s to the 1790s from an imitation of the ancient Greeks to an abstraction of Hellenistic art. Beginning in the 1790s and moving forward, Neoclassicism showed more austerity or "purity" as it was sometimes called. This starkness eventually led to a total lack of modeling and perspective. In U.S. coinage the best examples of this can be seen in the designs adopted for the three cent nickel and the Liberty nickel, both mere outlines or sketches of the figures they were intended to represent. While the Neoclassicists and a Classically influenced sculptor such as Augustus Saint-Gaudens both started at the same place in history, ancient Greece, they ended up in very different places. No one can claim Saint-Gaudens' figure on the High Relief double eagle is an abstraction or mere outline. It retains the vibrancy of Hellenistic sculpture, even using the "wet canvas" effect on the drapery of the figure of Liberty in order to emphasize the underlying contours of the body. By producing the coin in high relief this Hellenistic influence is readily apparent, giving the coin a three-dimensionality unequaled on any coin produced since. This is a highly lustrous example that shows no obvious contact marks on either side. The strike details are fully defined throughout and there is a trace of a wire rim or "fin" around the perimeter of each side.
1907 $20 High Relief, Wire Rim MS66 PCGS. CAC. Neoclassicism imitated Classical forms in a wide range of artistic endeavors from architecture to coinage. It was thought that by imitating the ancient Greeks, a stasis could be achieved in the various artistic forms. But rather than reaching a status quo and remaining there, Neoclassicism evolved just as all other art movements have. The difference, however, is Neoclassicism moved backward in a fifty-year period from the 1740s to the 1790s from an imitation of the ancient Greeks to an abstraction of Hellenistic art. Beginning in the 1790s and moving forward, Neoclassicism showed more austerity or "purity" as it was sometimes called. This starkness eventually led to a total lack of modeling and perspective. In U.S. coinage the best examples of this can be seen in the designs adopted for the three cent nickel and the Liberty nickel, both mere outlines or sketches of the figures they were intended to represent. While the Neoclassicists and a Classically influenced sculptor such as Augustus Saint-Gaudens both started at the same place in history, ancient Greece, they ended up in very different places. No one can claim Saint-Gaudens' figure on the High Relief double eagle is an abstraction or mere outline. It retains the vibrancy of Hellenistic sculpture, even using the "wet canvas" effect on the drapery of the figure of Liberty in order to emphasize the underlying contours of the body. By producing the coin in high relief this Hellenistic influence is readily apparent, giving the coin a three-dimensionality unequaled on any coin produced since. This is a highly lustrous example that shows no obvious contact marks on either side. The strike details are fully defined throughout and there is a trace of a wire rim or "fin" around the perimeter of each side.