PHILADELPHIA — United States Mint Director Ed Moy opened an exhibit today detailing the development of the 2009 Ultra High Relief Double Eagle Gold Coin, a modern version of Augustus Saint–Gaudens’ original 1907 Double Eagle $20 gold piece. The exhibit, previewed at the World’s Fair of Money® last year in Baltimore, is on display at the United States Mint at Philadelphia. Immediately following the ceremony, reporters and the media got a behind–the–scenes look at coin design using 21st century digital technology used to make the coin possible.
“We are proud to give visitors to the United States Mint at Philadelphia a glimpse into our journey to fulfill the dream of Saint–Gaudens and President Theodore Roosevelt,” said Director Moy. “The 2009 Ultra High Relief Double Eagle Gold Coin represents a new era in coin design.”
Visitors to the exhibit will get a look – from start to finish – inside the United States Mint’s development process for re–creating the 1907 Double Eagle. Featured items on display include a pencil sketch of an early design by Saint–Gaudens and the final digital model used to create the 2009 coin. Visitors also will see the coin’s production phases that include test blanks, feasibility strikes and progression strikes. A set of feasibility dies, a set of the final design dies and a three–part collar segment that forms the raised edge lettering when the coin is struck are also on display. The exhibit culminates in the final product – the 2009 Ultra High Relief Double Eagle Gold Coin – that was put on sale January 22.
This ultra high relief coin was more than 100 years in the making. In 1907, although the then–Bureau of the Mint had recently installed new Janvier reducing lathes at the direct petition of Saint–Gaudens himself, the production process of that era was still too arduous to mass produce an ultra high relief coin. It is the United States Mint’s 21st century technology that allowed Saint–Gaudens’ original sculpture to be digitally captured, updated and produced in quantity. The digital design process permitted production staff to create a true basin, remodel inscriptions and update the design with 50 stars, the inscription IN GOD WE TRUST and the year MMIX (2009). The digital process also creates dies more precisely through Computer Numerically Controlled die–cutting, allowing the true original vision for the design to translate into crisp detail.
The United States Mint fully transitioned to digital technology in 2008, completely changing the way a coin is made. Today, because of the integration of digital technology, manufacturing is more efficient and consistent than at any previous time in the United States Mint’s history.
For more information on the 2009 Ultra High Relief Double Eagle Gold Coin and to view an online version of the exhibit, visit: http://www.usmint.gov/mint%5Fprograms/ultrahigh/
To make the 2009 Ultra High Relief Double Eagle Gold Coin part of your collection, go to:
http://www.usmint.gov/catalog.