WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.279 If I told you that a sitting United States president 00:00:02.279 --> 00:00:06.919 once threatened to physically decapitate a Treasury 00:00:06.919 --> 00:00:10.539 employee over the font on a $10 coin, you'd probably 00:00:10.539 --> 00:00:12.679 think I was setting up a ridiculous joke. Right, 00:00:12.820 --> 00:00:15.060 like some kind of historical sitcom pitch. Exactly. 00:00:15.560 --> 00:00:18.640 But back in 1907, the creation of a brand new 00:00:18.640 --> 00:00:22.079 $10 gold piece triggered exactly that kind of 00:00:22.079 --> 00:00:25.379 historic, fiercely personal, bureaucratic bloodbath. 00:00:25.960 --> 00:00:28.059 Welcome to another deep dive. Glad to be here 00:00:28.059 --> 00:00:30.480 for this one. Today we are immersing ourselves 00:00:30.480 --> 00:00:33.659 in a comprehensive Wikipedia article on the Indian 00:00:33.659 --> 00:00:36.880 head eagle which is a $10 gold piece minted between 00:00:36.880 --> 00:00:40.740 1907 and 1933. And I want to set the expectations 00:00:40.740 --> 00:00:43.280 early for you listening. Our mission today is 00:00:43.280 --> 00:00:45.439 absolutely not just some dry paint -by -numbers 00:00:45.439 --> 00:00:47.539 numismatic history lesson. No, not in the slightest. 00:00:47.640 --> 00:00:49.359 What we're really looking at is a borderline 00:00:49.359 --> 00:00:52.119 absurd case study of what happens when high art, 00:00:52.920 --> 00:00:55.619 massive presidential ego, and, well, stubborn 00:00:55.619 --> 00:00:58.320 bureaucratic engineering violently collide. OK, 00:00:58.320 --> 00:01:01.079 let's unpack this. Because the stakes here are 00:01:01.079 --> 00:01:03.899 so much higher than just designing some pocket 00:01:03.899 --> 00:01:08.299 change, we are talking about fundamentally altering 00:01:08.299 --> 00:01:10.700 the physical representation of the United States 00:01:10.700 --> 00:01:13.420 economy. Yeah to really grasp those stakes I 00:01:13.420 --> 00:01:16.379 want you to imagine stepping into a moody dimly 00:01:16.379 --> 00:01:20.219 lit early 20th century minting floor. Oh setting 00:01:20.219 --> 00:01:22.819 the scene I like it. Picture the smell of hot 00:01:22.819 --> 00:01:26.319 metal you know the deafening rhythmic slamming 00:01:26.319 --> 00:01:29.140 of heavy industrial presses the sheer heat of 00:01:29.140 --> 00:01:32.680 the furnaces that is our backdrop. Now by the 00:01:32.680 --> 00:01:35.400 year 1904 United States coinage had essentially 00:01:35.400 --> 00:01:37.939 been stuck in a massive creative rut. Right they 00:01:37.939 --> 00:01:40.040 hadn't changed anything in a long time. Exactly 00:01:40.040 --> 00:01:42.819 the designs like the Liberty Head had been circulating 00:01:42.819 --> 00:01:45.420 unchanged for over 25 years so they were highly 00:01:45.420 --> 00:01:48.219 functional but artistically they were just tired. 00:01:48.420 --> 00:01:51.280 And then President Theodore Roosevelt looks at 00:01:51.280 --> 00:01:53.579 the money circulating in his country and just 00:01:53.579 --> 00:01:56.239 decides it entirely lacks artistic merit. He 00:01:56.239 --> 00:01:58.500 basically thinks the coins are objectively ugly. 00:01:59.859 --> 00:02:03.459 Which is such a Roosevelt thing to do. And a 00:02:03.459 --> 00:02:06.079 famously headstrong president deciding his country's 00:02:06.079 --> 00:02:08.819 money isn't pretty enough, that sets off a chain 00:02:08.819 --> 00:02:11.800 reaction that nobody at the U .S. Mint was remotely 00:02:11.800 --> 00:02:13.979 prepared to handle. That is the initial spark. 00:02:14.379 --> 00:02:16.219 Because Roosevelt decides he isn't just going 00:02:16.219 --> 00:02:18.560 to complain about it, he's going to act as the 00:02:18.560 --> 00:02:21.099 de facto art director for the United States Treasury. 00:02:21.360 --> 00:02:23.879 I mean, can you imagine the president micromanaging 00:02:23.879 --> 00:02:27.430 the Mint today? It would be chaos. But he writes 00:02:27.430 --> 00:02:29.650 a formal letter to Treasury Secretary Leslie 00:02:29.650 --> 00:02:32.210 Mordier -Shaw with his grievances, and then he 00:02:32.210 --> 00:02:34.909 does something largely unprecedented. He brings 00:02:34.909 --> 00:02:37.530 in an outside contractor. Right. He hires the 00:02:37.530 --> 00:02:40.030 renowned private sculptor Augustus Saint -Gaudens 00:02:40.030 --> 00:02:42.789 to completely redesign the nation's gold pieces. 00:02:43.330 --> 00:02:45.169 Actually, I want to clarify the terminology here 00:02:45.169 --> 00:02:47.009 for a second, just so we have a baseline. When 00:02:47.009 --> 00:02:49.289 we say gold pieces and eagles, what are we actually 00:02:49.289 --> 00:02:51.150 talking about in terms of everyday money at the 00:02:51.150 --> 00:02:53.969 time? Oh, good clarification. The eagle was basically 00:02:53.969 --> 00:02:56.680 the base unit of denomination. for U .S. gold 00:02:56.680 --> 00:03:00.060 currency. So an eagle was a $10 gold piece. Okay, 00:03:00.120 --> 00:03:02.979 got it. Meaning, a quarter eagle was $2 .50, 00:03:03.539 --> 00:03:07.000 a half eagle was $5, and a double eagle was $20. 00:03:07.699 --> 00:03:10.379 And Roosevelt tasked St. Gaudens with redesigning 00:03:10.379 --> 00:03:12.719 all of them, from the quarter eagle all the way 00:03:12.719 --> 00:03:15.020 up to the double eagle. Which immediately creates 00:03:15.020 --> 00:03:17.419 this explosive workplace dynamic. Yeah. Because 00:03:17.419 --> 00:03:20.319 now you have this famous avant -garde outsider, 00:03:20.500 --> 00:03:23.479 St. Gaudens, walking directly into the territory 00:03:23.479 --> 00:03:26.199 of the Mint's chief engraver, a man named Charles 00:03:26.199 --> 00:03:29.159 E. Barber. Yeah, and Barber is a government man. 00:03:29.180 --> 00:03:31.439 He is a com - man through and through. Right, 00:03:31.460 --> 00:03:33.379 he's been running the aesthetic and mechanical 00:03:33.379 --> 00:03:36.300 side of the mint for decades at this point. And 00:03:36.300 --> 00:03:38.939 Barbara is intensely hostile to this intrusion. 00:03:39.020 --> 00:03:41.719 I mean, he views St. Gaudens not as a visionary, 00:03:42.300 --> 00:03:45.080 but as this disruptive nuisance who doesn't understand 00:03:45.080 --> 00:03:47.840 the first thing about manufacturing actual currency. 00:03:48.280 --> 00:03:50.680 The animosity between these two is just palpable 00:03:50.680 --> 00:03:53.379 in the historical record. It gets intensely petty. 00:03:53.419 --> 00:03:55.860 Oh, incredibly petty. There is this surviving 00:03:55.860 --> 00:03:58.539 letter from St. Gaudens to his brother. where 00:03:58.539 --> 00:04:02.460 he explicitly refers to Barber as an SOAB. Ha, 00:04:02.719 --> 00:04:04.780 you can fill in the blanks on that acronym. Yeah, 00:04:04.900 --> 00:04:06.979 and he notes in the letter that President Roosevelt 00:04:06.979 --> 00:04:08.819 actually threatened to cut Barber's head off 00:04:08.819 --> 00:04:11.379 if the engraver didn't cooperate. What's fascinating 00:04:11.379 --> 00:04:14.599 here is that this conflict goes way deeper than 00:04:14.599 --> 00:04:17.720 just bruised egos. It is fundamentally a clash 00:04:17.720 --> 00:04:20.540 over the very definition of value. How do you 00:04:20.540 --> 00:04:23.000 mean? Well, to someone like Chief Engraver Barber, 00:04:23.420 --> 00:04:26.420 a coin's value lies entirely in its utility, 00:04:26.939 --> 00:04:29.800 its reliability, and its standardization. Like 00:04:29.800 --> 00:04:32.360 it has to function as a physical object. Exactly. 00:04:32.579 --> 00:04:34.800 It needs to stack perfectly in a banker's vault. 00:04:34.959 --> 00:04:37.160 It needs to not shatter the minting presses. 00:04:37.519 --> 00:04:40.399 And it needs to hold exactly $10 worth of gold 00:04:40.399 --> 00:04:43.240 without wearing down. So to Barber, it's just 00:04:43.240 --> 00:04:46.259 a tool. This is exactly like a visionary CEO 00:04:46.259 --> 00:04:49.620 hiring a famously eccentric avant -garde artist 00:04:49.620 --> 00:04:52.720 to completely redesign the company's vital accounting 00:04:52.720 --> 00:04:55.240 software. That is such a perfect parallel. And 00:04:55.240 --> 00:04:57.819 then telling the frustrated IT department they'll 00:04:57.819 --> 00:04:59.699 all be fired if they complain about the code 00:04:59.699 --> 00:05:01.980 breaking. Right, because to Roosevelt and Saint 00:05:01.980 --> 00:05:04.339 -Gaudens, a coin's value isn't just mechanical. 00:05:04.639 --> 00:05:07.740 It is deeply symbolic. It is an expression of 00:05:07.740 --> 00:05:10.370 national identity and classical beauty. Because 00:05:10.370 --> 00:05:12.430 Roosevelt was obsessed with the high -relief 00:05:12.430 --> 00:05:14.569 coins of the ancient Greeks, wasn't he? He was. 00:05:14.829 --> 00:05:17.069 He wanted the United States to have currency 00:05:17.069 --> 00:05:20.189 that riddled antiquity. They were actively trying 00:05:20.189 --> 00:05:23.209 to manufacture this majestic heritage for a relatively 00:05:23.209 --> 00:05:26.220 young nation. But the irony is that Roosevelt's 00:05:26.220 --> 00:05:29.279 grand vision ends up forcing the artist into 00:05:29.279 --> 00:05:32.339 some incredibly bizarre compromises. Oh, the 00:05:32.339 --> 00:05:34.920 compromises are wild. Having established this 00:05:34.920 --> 00:05:37.379 massive tension between art and utility, the 00:05:37.379 --> 00:05:40.860 project moves into the actual design phase. And 00:05:40.860 --> 00:05:43.259 this is where Saint -Gaudens realizes that having 00:05:43.259 --> 00:05:45.779 the president of the United States as your personal 00:05:45.779 --> 00:05:49.180 patron is a massive double -edged sword. Because 00:05:49.180 --> 00:05:52.100 the president simply cannot stop meddling. Exactly. 00:05:52.439 --> 00:05:54.600 So Saint -Gaudens had this beautiful classical 00:05:54.600 --> 00:05:56.720 head of Liberty that he originally intended for 00:05:56.720 --> 00:05:59.019 the one cent coin. Right, it was based on an 00:05:59.019 --> 00:06:01.560 unused model he had designed for a victory monument 00:06:01.560 --> 00:06:03.439 in New York City. Yeah, it was very elegant. 00:06:03.879 --> 00:06:06.699 But Roosevelt steps in, looks at it, and insists 00:06:06.699 --> 00:06:09.439 that a male Native American feather headdress, 00:06:09.560 --> 00:06:12.639 like a full war bonnet, be added to this female 00:06:12.639 --> 00:06:15.060 classical Liberty's head. And his reasoning for 00:06:15.060 --> 00:06:18.860 this? He thought the headdress was, quote, distinctly 00:06:18.860 --> 00:06:22.300 American. Which is just a purely aesthetic, deeply 00:06:22.300 --> 00:06:25.240 anachronistic choice that ignores all cultural 00:06:25.240 --> 00:06:28.220 context completely. It makes no sense. And the 00:06:28.220 --> 00:06:30.660 contemporary critics absolutely tore it apart. 00:06:30.860 --> 00:06:33.199 Oh, they destroyed it. Numismatic historians 00:06:33.199 --> 00:06:35.579 and art critics at the time completely panned 00:06:35.579 --> 00:06:38.500 the decision. They called the design absurd and 00:06:38.500 --> 00:06:40.959 incongruous. And you can completely see why. 00:06:41.199 --> 00:06:43.899 They correctly pointed out that a classical female 00:06:43.899 --> 00:06:46.800 figure would never wear a male warrior's war 00:06:46.800 --> 00:06:49.420 bonnet. Right. It's historically nonsensical. 00:06:49.629 --> 00:06:52.629 Can you imagine the uproar today if a politician 00:06:52.629 --> 00:06:55.949 forced a famous artist to just mash together 00:06:55.949 --> 00:06:58.649 two completely unrelated cultural symbols on 00:06:58.649 --> 00:07:00.870 the national currency purely because they thought 00:07:00.870 --> 00:07:03.250 it looked cool? It would be a relentless media 00:07:03.250 --> 00:07:06.250 circus today, but it shows how Roosevelt's interference 00:07:06.250 --> 00:07:08.649 compromised the artistic integrity of the project. 00:07:08.850 --> 00:07:11.449 Yeah, it really did. It reminds you how often 00:07:11.449 --> 00:07:14.209 brilliant creative endeavors are derailed by 00:07:14.209 --> 00:07:16.759 executive meddling. The person with the ultimate 00:07:16.759 --> 00:07:18.699 authority isn't always the person with the most 00:07:18.699 --> 00:07:21.319 refined taste. The reverse of the coin is fascinating 00:07:21.319 --> 00:07:24.220 too. It features this majestic standing eagle 00:07:24.220 --> 00:07:26.860 on a sheaf of arrows with an olive branch. Right. 00:07:27.120 --> 00:07:29.639 A very striking image. But the inspiration for 00:07:29.639 --> 00:07:32.579 that didn't come from American wildlife. It actually 00:07:32.579 --> 00:07:34.939 came from an ancient Egyptian coin of Ptolemy 00:07:34.939 --> 00:07:38.680 I. Wait, really? An Egyptian coin? Yeah. St. 00:07:38.879 --> 00:07:41.589 Gaudens actually had a book with an illustration 00:07:41.589 --> 00:07:44.449 of this ancient coin, and he lent that exact 00:07:44.449 --> 00:07:46.930 book to the president to get his approval. That 00:07:46.930 --> 00:07:49.709 is wild. It really highlights that constant push 00:07:49.709 --> 00:07:52.629 and pull on American identity, trying to project 00:07:52.629 --> 00:07:54.910 rugged American uniqueness on the front with 00:07:54.910 --> 00:07:57.910 the headdress while explicitly borrowing the 00:07:57.910 --> 00:08:00.170 visual language of ancient empires on the back. 00:08:00.449 --> 00:08:03.240 So eventually the design is finalized. culturally 00:08:03.240 --> 00:08:05.819 mashed up feathered headdress and all, but a 00:08:05.819 --> 00:08:07.639 drawing isn't a coin. Now they actually have 00:08:07.639 --> 00:08:09.699 to manufacture the thing. And this is where the 00:08:09.699 --> 00:08:12.250 rubber meets the road. Yeah. This beautiful high 00:08:12.250 --> 00:08:15.310 -relief art crashes head first into the unforgiving 00:08:15.310 --> 00:08:18.350 physical physics of minting presses. This is 00:08:18.350 --> 00:08:21.389 where Barber, our aggrieved bureaucrat, is somewhat 00:08:21.389 --> 00:08:23.769 vindicated. And, you know, we have to acknowledge 00:08:23.769 --> 00:08:26.829 the tragic human element here, too. Right. Because 00:08:26.829 --> 00:08:29.470 Saint -Gaudens is actively dying of cancer during 00:08:29.470 --> 00:08:32.350 this entire stressful process. Yeah. He actually 00:08:32.350 --> 00:08:36.289 passes away in August 1907 before ever seeing 00:08:36.519 --> 00:08:39.039 the final coins hit mass circulation. It's really 00:08:39.039 --> 00:08:42.500 sad. It is. But before he dies, he submits his 00:08:42.500 --> 00:08:45.740 final models to the mint. And because he is primarily 00:08:45.740 --> 00:08:47.919 a sculptor who works on monuments and metals, 00:08:48.500 --> 00:08:51.080 his models are in high relief. Meaning they have 00:08:51.080 --> 00:08:54.970 deep, dramatic. sweeping curves. Which is an 00:08:54.970 --> 00:08:57.250 absolute engineering nightmare for a mass production 00:08:57.250 --> 00:08:58.950 facility. Wait, I want to pause here because 00:08:58.950 --> 00:09:00.970 I think it's easy to just say engineering nightmare 00:09:00.970 --> 00:09:03.590 and move on, but what is the actual physical 00:09:03.590 --> 00:09:06.009 problem? Like, why does a deep curve on a piece 00:09:06.009 --> 00:09:08.649 of metal break a machine? Okay, think of it this 00:09:08.649 --> 00:09:11.690 way. A standard coin press is designed to strike 00:09:11.690 --> 00:09:14.389 a flat piece of cold metal, which is called a 00:09:14.389 --> 00:09:17.149 planchette, exactly once in a fraction of a second. 00:09:17.330 --> 00:09:19.840 Just boom and it's done. Exactly. That single 00:09:19.840 --> 00:09:22.179 strike uses immense treasure to instantly stamp 00:09:22.179 --> 00:09:24.559 the design, and then the machine spits it out. 00:09:25.080 --> 00:09:27.799 But if the design has deep, dramatic cavities, 00:09:28.120 --> 00:09:30.799 high relief, that cold metal has to physically 00:09:30.799 --> 00:09:33.440 flow deeply into the die to fill out all the 00:09:33.440 --> 00:09:36.120 details of the artwork. And cold metal naturally 00:09:36.120 --> 00:09:38.899 resists flowing. Very much so. So to force it 00:09:38.899 --> 00:09:41.379 into those deep grooves, you can't just strike 00:09:41.379 --> 00:09:43.360 it once. You have to strike it multiple times. 00:09:43.360 --> 00:09:45.840 Oh, wow. And between each of those strikes, you 00:09:45.840 --> 00:09:48.539 have to take the coin out, heat it up in a furnace, 00:09:48.919 --> 00:09:51.159 to soften the metal, which is a process called 00:09:51.159 --> 00:09:53.700 annealing, and then put it back in the press. 00:09:54.059 --> 00:09:56.559 So what normally takes a fraction of a second 00:09:56.559 --> 00:09:59.379 per coin suddenly turns into a multi -hour ordeal 00:09:59.379 --> 00:10:02.360 for a single piece of money? Precisely. Barber 00:10:02.360 --> 00:10:04.360 immediately complains, pointing out that this 00:10:04.360 --> 00:10:07.039 simply isn't coin relief. You cannot produce 00:10:07.039 --> 00:10:09.720 millions of these for national commerce if each 00:10:09.720 --> 00:10:12.980 one requires a bespoke, artisanal forging process. 00:10:13.059 --> 00:10:14.980 That makes total sense from his perspective. 00:10:15.159 --> 00:10:17.419 Plus, St. Gaudens used Roman numerals for the 00:10:17.419 --> 00:10:21.350 date MCMVA for 1907. And Barbara points out that 00:10:21.350 --> 00:10:23.669 there is physically no room left on the die to 00:10:23.669 --> 00:10:26.389 add more Roman numerals for future years without 00:10:26.389 --> 00:10:28.529 entirely redesigning the tool. Right, because 00:10:28.529 --> 00:10:31.049 MCME takes up more space. Exactly. But President 00:10:31.049 --> 00:10:32.769 Roosevelt doesn't care about the physics of cold 00:10:32.769 --> 00:10:35.110 metal. He throws an absolute fit when he hears 00:10:35.110 --> 00:10:38.129 about the delays. Of course he does. He demands 00:10:38.129 --> 00:10:40.429 that the new Eagles be in active production by 00:10:40.429 --> 00:10:43.190 September 1st. No excuses. And here's where it 00:10:43.190 --> 00:10:46.230 gets really interesting. The acting Mint director 00:10:46.230 --> 00:10:48.450 and the Treasury secretary, George Corteau, are 00:10:48.450 --> 00:10:51.190 so terrified of the president's rage, that they 00:10:51.190 --> 00:10:53.750 act in total desperation to buy themselves time. 00:10:53.909 --> 00:10:57.210 What do they do? Corteau secretly orders 500 00:10:57.210 --> 00:11:01.110 pieces to be struck. The famous wire rim pieces. 00:11:01.269 --> 00:11:03.990 Hold on though. If Barbara just proved that the 00:11:03.990 --> 00:11:06.470 standard coin presses literally couldn't handle 00:11:06.470 --> 00:11:09.070 the high relief without breaking, how did Corteau 00:11:09.070 --> 00:11:11.629 manage to magically strike 500 of them in secret? 00:11:11.799 --> 00:11:14.879 Did he use a different machine? He did. He bypassed 00:11:14.879 --> 00:11:17.379 the standard coin presses entirely. He took the 00:11:17.379 --> 00:11:20.740 dyes to a slow, high -pressure metal press. Ah, 00:11:20.759 --> 00:11:23.059 I see. Yeah, these machines were meant for striking 00:11:23.059 --> 00:11:25.220 commemorative metals, not circulating currency. 00:11:25.419 --> 00:11:29.049 It was agonizingly slow work. A numismatic historian 00:11:29.049 --> 00:11:31.929 explicitly described this act as an insurance 00:11:31.929 --> 00:11:34.549 policy against presidential rage. That is exactly 00:11:34.549 --> 00:11:37.269 what it was. They used a completely impractical 00:11:37.269 --> 00:11:42.549 machine to slowly forge 500 special coins just 00:11:42.549 --> 00:11:44.690 so they could hand something shiny to Roosevelt 00:11:44.690 --> 00:11:47.850 and say, look, Mr. President, we did it. Production 00:11:47.850 --> 00:11:50.529 has started. You have the highest levels of the 00:11:50.529 --> 00:11:53.049 Treasury Department sweating bullets, running 00:11:53.049 --> 00:11:55.850 a secret side operation purely to manage the 00:11:55.850 --> 00:11:58.230 temper of the commander -in -chief. It's unbelievable. 00:11:58.649 --> 00:12:00.850 But this raises an important question, one that 00:12:00.850 --> 00:12:03.309 gets to the heart of what currency actually is. 00:12:04.269 --> 00:12:06.350 Because handing the president a shiny object 00:12:06.350 --> 00:12:09.129 doesn't solve the macroeconomic problem. No, 00:12:09.169 --> 00:12:11.860 it doesn't. Barber eventually has to step in 00:12:11.860 --> 00:12:14.779 and alter the design anyway. He has to significantly 00:12:14.779 --> 00:12:17.039 lower the relief and add a proper rim around 00:12:17.039 --> 00:12:20.259 the edge. And that rim is crucial. Because without 00:12:20.259 --> 00:12:22.960 a proper raised rim, the extreme pressure of 00:12:22.960 --> 00:12:25.539 the high release strike forced the gold to squirt 00:12:25.539 --> 00:12:27.820 out horizontally past the edges of the die. Like 00:12:27.820 --> 00:12:30.220 pressing down too hard on a waffle iron? Yes. 00:12:30.519 --> 00:12:32.539 The batter has nowhere to go, so it just oozes 00:12:32.539 --> 00:12:34.799 out the sides. That is the exact mechanism. On 00:12:34.799 --> 00:12:37.559 a coin, this creates a razor thin edge of excess 00:12:37.559 --> 00:12:39.940 gold called a fin. And this fin was incredibly 00:12:39.940 --> 00:12:42.860 fragile, right? Extremely. If you put that coin 00:12:42.860 --> 00:12:45.460 in your pocket, the fin would flake right off. 00:12:45.820 --> 00:12:49.019 Now remember, this is a $10 gold piece. Its value 00:12:49.019 --> 00:12:51.700 is tied directly to its physical weight in gold. 00:12:51.879 --> 00:12:54.519 Oh, right. So if it flakes... If pieces of it 00:12:54.519 --> 00:12:56.559 are breaking off in people's pockets, the coin 00:12:56.559 --> 00:12:59.679 becomes underweight. Bankers will literally reject 00:12:59.679 --> 00:13:03.259 it. It loses its legal trade value. Wow. So... 00:13:03.279 --> 00:13:06.100 If a coin is too beautiful to function in commerce, 00:13:06.360 --> 00:13:09.019 if its very artistry destroys its utility as 00:13:09.019 --> 00:13:12.100 money, it has failed its primary mission. Barbara 00:13:12.100 --> 00:13:14.519 had to save the coin from its own beauty. The 00:13:14.519 --> 00:13:17.600 art was actively fighting the medium. But Barbara 00:13:17.600 --> 00:13:20.240 does fix it. The engineering problems are solved. 00:13:20.519 --> 00:13:22.919 The relief is lowered. The rim is added. The 00:13:22.919 --> 00:13:24.779 waffle batter finning is stopped. Right. They 00:13:24.779 --> 00:13:27.179 finally get it working. And finally, in November 00:13:27.179 --> 00:13:30.440 1907, the new Indian head eagles hit the pockets 00:13:30.440 --> 00:13:33.210 of everyday Americans. Barber solved the physical 00:13:33.210 --> 00:13:35.629 utility of the coin. It could finally stack, 00:13:35.789 --> 00:13:38.230 it could circulate, and it held its weight. But 00:13:38.230 --> 00:13:40.909 by focusing so intensely on fixing the physical 00:13:40.909 --> 00:13:43.090 object, they completely overkicked the cultural 00:13:43.090 --> 00:13:45.889 utility of the coin. Yeah, they really did. Because 00:13:45.889 --> 00:13:48.210 when Americans finally got this beautiful new 00:13:48.210 --> 00:13:50.690 money in their hands, they realized something 00:13:50.690 --> 00:13:53.690 crucial was missing. The motto. The motto, in 00:13:53.690 --> 00:13:56.090 God we trust, is completely noticeably missing 00:13:56.090 --> 00:13:59.490 from this new $10 gold piece. And this was not 00:13:59.490 --> 00:14:02.289 an oversight. Roosevelt intentionally omitted 00:14:02.289 --> 00:14:04.970 it. It's a fascinating philosophical clash. On 00:14:04.970 --> 00:14:08.070 one hand, you have Roosevelt's perspective. He 00:14:08.070 --> 00:14:11.230 viewed money as a fundamentally a secular tool 00:14:11.230 --> 00:14:14.259 of commerce. Right. Money is used to buy worldly 00:14:14.259 --> 00:14:18.429 goods, pay off debts, and frankly, fun illicit 00:14:18.429 --> 00:14:20.990 activities. He argued that stamping God's name 00:14:20.990 --> 00:14:23.309 on something used in a saloon or a gambling hall 00:14:23.309 --> 00:14:25.690 actually degraded religion. It was sacrilege 00:14:25.690 --> 00:14:28.309 to him. And St. Godin's eagerly agreed to leave 00:14:28.309 --> 00:14:30.909 it off, mostly because he just hated clutter 00:14:30.909 --> 00:14:33.429 text ruining his clean artistic composition. 00:14:33.730 --> 00:14:36.470 Typical artist move. Yeah, exactly. But on the 00:14:36.470 --> 00:14:38.429 other hand, you have the American public who 00:14:38.429 --> 00:14:40.350 view their currency as a reflection of their 00:14:40.350 --> 00:14:42.929 core national values. They saw the omission as 00:14:42.929 --> 00:14:45.649 a secular attack. And they reacted quickly. By 00:14:45.649 --> 00:14:49.899 November 7th. mere days after the coins hit circulation. 00:14:50.740 --> 00:14:53.240 Newspapers are aggressively attacking the decision. 00:14:53.759 --> 00:14:56.299 They are calling it a godless coin. The public 00:14:56.299 --> 00:14:58.730 is furious. Now, I want to be clear here for 00:14:58.730 --> 00:15:01.070 you listening. We aren't taking sides on this 00:15:01.070 --> 00:15:03.809 historical religious debate. Whether money should 00:15:03.809 --> 00:15:06.529 be secular or religious is outside our scope. 00:15:07.009 --> 00:15:09.409 We are simply imparting what the historical sources 00:15:09.409 --> 00:15:11.929 report. Exactly. And regardless of where you 00:15:11.929 --> 00:15:14.049 stand on that debate between secular utility 00:15:14.049 --> 00:15:16.490 and religious expression, the sheer scale of 00:15:16.490 --> 00:15:19.409 the backlash is undeniable. It really shows us 00:15:19.409 --> 00:15:22.710 in real time how a nation's money serves as a 00:15:22.710 --> 00:15:24.990 lightning rod for national identity. It's not 00:15:24.990 --> 00:15:27.559 just purchasing power. It is a bill for the values 00:15:27.559 --> 00:15:30.080 of the society using it. When you drastically 00:15:30.080 --> 00:15:32.659 alter that billboard, you provoke a visceral 00:15:32.659 --> 00:15:34.940 reaction. Think about how notoriously difficult 00:15:34.940 --> 00:15:37.379 it is to get Congress to agree on anything today. 00:15:37.799 --> 00:15:40.299 But back in early 1908, the pressure from the 00:15:40.299 --> 00:15:42.860 public was so intense that Congress moved with 00:15:42.860 --> 00:15:45.679 incredible speed. They did. They explicitly passed 00:15:45.679 --> 00:15:48.419 a bill legally mandating the return of the motto 00:15:48.419 --> 00:15:53.480 to the gold coins. So, Charles Barber, our favorite 00:15:53.480 --> 00:15:55.909 beleaguered bureaucrat, has to alter the dies 00:15:55.909 --> 00:15:58.570 all over again. He adds the motto back in, placing 00:15:58.570 --> 00:16:00.750 it to the left of the eagle's breast on the reverse. 00:16:01.009 --> 00:16:03.389 And almost out of spite, he makes other minor 00:16:03.389 --> 00:16:05.769 tweaks while he has the tools open. Oh, of course 00:16:05.769 --> 00:16:08.169 he does. He shifts the design slightly, exposing 00:16:08.169 --> 00:16:10.840 a little more of the letter U. in the word UNUM, 00:16:11.220 --> 00:16:12.960 just to make sure his mechanical preferences 00:16:12.960 --> 00:16:15.480 were fully implemented. For the collectors out 00:16:15.480 --> 00:16:18.059 there, this frantic era of alterations creates 00:16:18.059 --> 00:16:20.720 some fascinating variations that are highly sought 00:16:20.720 --> 00:16:23.639 after today. Absolutely. For instance, there 00:16:23.639 --> 00:16:25.740 are the no -modo coins struck at the Denver Mint 00:16:25.740 --> 00:16:29.879 in 1908, known as the 1908D. On those, the demint 00:16:29.879 --> 00:16:32.059 mark is placed above the leaves near the eagle's 00:16:32.059 --> 00:16:34.820 feet. But once Congress forced them to add the 00:16:34.820 --> 00:16:37.480 model later that same year, Barbara moved the 00:16:37.480 --> 00:16:39.440 mint mark to the left of the arrow to balance 00:16:39.440 --> 00:16:41.740 the design. There's also a great piece of trivia 00:16:41.740 --> 00:16:44.340 about the edge of the coin itself. Yeah. Tell 00:16:44.340 --> 00:16:46.720 about the stars. So if you picture a modern quarter, 00:16:47.019 --> 00:16:50.419 it has ridges or reeds on the edge. The Indian 00:16:50.419 --> 00:16:52.860 head eagle didn't have reeds. It had raised stars 00:16:52.860 --> 00:16:55.000 running along the rim. Which was an aesthetic 00:16:55.000 --> 00:16:57.259 choice, but also a crucial security feature. 00:16:58.039 --> 00:17:01.159 Edge designs, whether reeds or stars, were implemented 00:17:01.159 --> 00:17:04.059 to prevent clipping. which was the illegal practice 00:17:04.059 --> 00:17:06.200 of shaving tiny amounts of gold off the smooth 00:17:06.200 --> 00:17:09.940 edge of a coin before spending it. Exactly. Originally, 00:17:10.140 --> 00:17:12.299 there were 46 stars around the edge to represent 00:17:12.299 --> 00:17:15.680 the 46 states in the union, but in 1912, New 00:17:15.680 --> 00:17:18.119 Mexico and Arizona joined the United States. 00:17:18.380 --> 00:17:20.559 Meaning the mint couldn't just change the face 00:17:20.559 --> 00:17:22.930 of the coin. Nope. They had to completely re 00:17:22.930 --> 00:17:25.630 -engineer the edge collar, the heavy steel ring 00:17:25.630 --> 00:17:27.809 that surrounds the coin during the strike, to 00:17:27.809 --> 00:17:30.529 fit 48 stars instead. It's just one mechanical 00:17:30.529 --> 00:17:32.549 headache after another. The coin essentially 00:17:32.549 --> 00:17:35.309 functions as a living, physical document of American 00:17:35.309 --> 00:17:37.589 history at that point. It records the shifting 00:17:37.589 --> 00:17:40.410 of borders, the arguments over religion, and 00:17:40.410 --> 00:17:42.369 the limits of industrial technology. It really 00:17:42.369 --> 00:17:45.109 does. It survives its turbulent birth, it survives 00:17:45.109 --> 00:17:47.849 the religious scandal, and it becomes a reliable, 00:17:47.869 --> 00:17:50.619 everyday part of American commerce. But we have 00:17:50.619 --> 00:17:53.559 to look at how this story concludes. Right. We 00:17:53.559 --> 00:17:56.539 are moving from the coin's chaotic creation to 00:17:56.539 --> 00:17:59.880 its sudden dramatic death. The context of this 00:17:59.880 --> 00:18:02.619 object is about to violently shift from a medium 00:18:02.619 --> 00:18:05.880 of everyday exchange to a modern multimillion 00:18:05.880 --> 00:18:08.470 dollar collector's item. And that shift is driven 00:18:08.470 --> 00:18:11.750 entirely by global macroeconomic forces and sweeping 00:18:11.750 --> 00:18:13.910 government decrees. Production is humming along 00:18:13.910 --> 00:18:16.309 nicely until World War One breaks out. During 00:18:16.309 --> 00:18:19.349 the war, gold basically stops circulating normally. 00:18:19.529 --> 00:18:21.430 It flows heavily back from Europe to the United 00:18:21.430 --> 00:18:23.950 States to pay for war materials. Yeah. And gold 00:18:23.950 --> 00:18:26.670 coins begin to command a premium over paper money. 00:18:27.269 --> 00:18:29.630 So the mint basically stops mass producing the 00:18:29.630 --> 00:18:33.259 $10 Eagles after 1916. They only mint them sporadically 00:18:33.259 --> 00:18:36.740 in a few specific years, like 1920, 1926, 1930, 00:18:36.920 --> 00:18:40.920 and finally 1932 and 1933. And 1933 is the fatal 00:18:40.920 --> 00:18:43.359 blow for the entire concept of circulating gold 00:18:43.359 --> 00:18:46.500 currency in America. Yes, it is. In 1933, another 00:18:46.500 --> 00:18:48.960 president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, is staring 00:18:48.960 --> 00:18:50.980 down the barrel of the Great Depression. The 00:18:50.980 --> 00:18:53.200 banking system is collapsing and people are hoarding 00:18:53.200 --> 00:18:56.089 gold. So to stabilize the economy and centralize 00:18:56.089 --> 00:18:59.130 the nation's gold reserves, FDR issues Executive 00:18:59.130 --> 00:19:02.190 Order 6102. Which is a huge deal. Oh, massive. 00:19:02.470 --> 00:19:04.990 He orders the recall of all gold coins, gold 00:19:04.990 --> 00:19:07.450 bullion, and gold certificates. Everyday Americans 00:19:07.450 --> 00:19:10.069 are legally forced to turn in their gold to the 00:19:10.069 --> 00:19:12.250 Federal Reserve in exchange for paper money. 00:19:12.650 --> 00:19:16.019 This single sweeping order. ends the $10 Eagle 00:19:16.019 --> 00:19:18.779 Series entirely, a denomination that had been 00:19:18.779 --> 00:19:21.319 running continuously in the United States since 00:19:21.319 --> 00:19:24.220 1795. The government just scoops them all out 00:19:24.220 --> 00:19:27.180 of bank vaults and private hands and ruthlessly 00:19:27.180 --> 00:19:29.900 melts them down into featureless gold bars to 00:19:29.900 --> 00:19:31.900 back the treasury. If we connect this to the 00:19:31.900 --> 00:19:34.480 bigger picture, this government destruction creates 00:19:34.480 --> 00:19:38.779 a fascinating paradox of rarity. Take the 1920s 00:19:38.779 --> 00:19:41.140 eagle, which was minted in San Francisco. It 00:19:41.140 --> 00:19:44.380 had a healthy mintage of over 126 ,000 coins. 00:19:44.859 --> 00:19:47.339 But today, it is considered a major numismatic 00:19:47.339 --> 00:19:49.980 rarity. Why is that? Because in 1920, Europe 00:19:49.980 --> 00:19:51.960 was still financially devastated from World War 00:19:51.960 --> 00:19:54.519 I and wasn't importing American gold. So almost 00:19:54.519 --> 00:19:57.400 all of those 126 ,000 coins just sat in treasury 00:19:57.400 --> 00:19:59.299 vaults in the US. Oh, I see where this is going. 00:19:59.559 --> 00:20:02.160 Yeah, when FDR's melting order came down in 1933, 00:20:02.279 --> 00:20:03.880 they're right there waiting to be destroyed. 00:20:04.099 --> 00:20:06.039 Almost the entire batch was wiped out in one 00:20:06.039 --> 00:20:08.900 go. And then there is a 1933 Eagle, which is 00:20:08.900 --> 00:20:12.160 the ultimate ghost coin of this series. The Mint 00:20:12.160 --> 00:20:16.480 produced 312 ,500 of them that year. But because 00:20:16.480 --> 00:20:18.579 FDR's order came down right as they were being 00:20:18.579 --> 00:20:21.119 struck, virtually the entire mintage was melted 00:20:21.119 --> 00:20:23.779 before it ever legally left the Mint facility. 00:20:24.119 --> 00:20:26.400 Only a tiny handful managed to escape, right? 00:20:26.779 --> 00:20:28.859 Yeah. Likely smuggled out by employees. Exactly. 00:20:28.839 --> 00:20:31.460 So what does this all mean for the legacy of 00:20:31.460 --> 00:20:34.519 the coin? Well, the numbers today are staggering. 00:20:35.279 --> 00:20:38.619 In 2004, one of those surviving 1933 Eagles, 00:20:39.119 --> 00:20:40.960 a coin originally meant to buy maybe a nice pair 00:20:40.960 --> 00:20:43.380 of leather boots or a week's worth of groceries, 00:20:43.920 --> 00:20:48.660 sold at auction for $718 ,750. Wow. And it gets 00:20:48.660 --> 00:20:51.079 even crazier. Remember those rounded rim pieces 00:20:51.079 --> 00:20:53.500 from 1907 that Barber fixed after the Waffle 00:20:53.500 --> 00:20:55.859 Iron Fitting disaster? The insurance policy coins? 00:20:56.119 --> 00:20:58.720 Not the wire rim ones, but the slightly adjusted 00:20:58.720 --> 00:21:01.519 ones after. They made about 32 ,000 of them. 00:21:02.119 --> 00:21:04.980 But then a new mint director, Frank Leach, decided 00:21:04.980 --> 00:21:07.740 the design still wasn't quite right and ordered 00:21:07.740 --> 00:21:10.420 almost all of them melted, saving only about 00:21:10.420 --> 00:21:13.079 50 specimens for museums and treasury officials. 00:21:13.960 --> 00:21:16.180 One of those surviving specimens, which had stayed 00:21:16.180 --> 00:21:18.480 tucked away in Frank Leach's own family for a 00:21:18.480 --> 00:21:23.500 century, sold at auction in 2011 for $2 ,185 00:21:23.500 --> 00:21:26.829 ,000. That is just it's the ultimate unintended 00:21:26.829 --> 00:21:29.470 consequence. The government's relentless attempts 00:21:29.470 --> 00:21:32.150 to erase these objects from existence, whether 00:21:32.150 --> 00:21:35.150 through quality control in 1907 or macro economic 00:21:35.150 --> 00:21:38.829 policy in 1933, is exactly what made them priceless 00:21:38.829 --> 00:21:41.710 historical artifacts today. It is just awe inspiring. 00:21:41.869 --> 00:21:45.289 I mean, an object explicitly designed to be jingled 00:21:45.289 --> 00:21:47.529 in a pocket to be worn down by dirty hands and 00:21:47.529 --> 00:21:50.170 cash registers becomes a two million dollar museum 00:21:50.170 --> 00:21:51.950 piece purely because the government tried to 00:21:51.950 --> 00:21:53.980 destroy it. It really makes you think about the 00:21:53.980 --> 00:21:56.039 stuff we carry around today. It does, to bring 00:21:56.039 --> 00:21:58.579 it all together. The journey of the Indian head 00:21:58.579 --> 00:22:00.940 eagle is one of the most chaotic product launches 00:22:00.940 --> 00:22:03.220 in American history. Yeah, without a doubt. It 00:22:03.220 --> 00:22:05.640 was born from a president's demand for classical 00:22:05.640 --> 00:22:08.640 high art. corrupted by his own bizarre cultural 00:22:08.640 --> 00:22:11.480 meddling, delayed by the unforgiving physics 00:22:11.480 --> 00:22:14.920 of industrial metal presses, embroiled in a massive 00:22:14.920 --> 00:22:17.400 national religious scandal over a missing motto, 00:22:18.059 --> 00:22:20.160 and ultimately permanently erased from commerce 00:22:20.160 --> 00:22:22.779 by another president's emergency decree. It is 00:22:22.779 --> 00:22:25.200 a profoundly dramatic life cycle for a small 00:22:25.200 --> 00:22:27.819 piece of metal. And it changes how you look at 00:22:27.819 --> 00:22:31.039 the mundane world. The next time you pull a standard 00:22:31.039 --> 00:22:33.519 quarter out of your pocket, or you look at the 00:22:33.519 --> 00:22:35.779 perfectly sanitized digital interface you use 00:22:35.779 --> 00:22:38.319 to tap and pay for your coffee, I want you to 00:22:38.319 --> 00:22:40.940 look closely at it. Take a second to appreciate 00:22:40.940 --> 00:22:44.079 the boring, predictable standardization. Exactly. 00:22:44.720 --> 00:22:47.619 Because behind every tiny design detail, behind 00:22:47.619 --> 00:22:50.460 every font choice, missing word, or ridged edge, 00:22:50.819 --> 00:22:53.940 it is highly likely that someone somewhere, fought 00:22:53.940 --> 00:22:56.299 a bitter, intensely personal battle over it. 00:22:56.700 --> 00:22:59.099 The mundane things we use effortlessly every 00:22:59.099 --> 00:23:01.880 day are very often the survivors of hidden historical 00:23:01.880 --> 00:23:03.980 wars. Which leaves us with a fascinating thought 00:23:03.980 --> 00:23:06.440 to consider as we wrap up this deep dive. Lay 00:23:06.440 --> 00:23:08.579 it on us. We just explored how a presidential 00:23:08.579 --> 00:23:11.279 order in 1933 to recall and destroy physical 00:23:11.279 --> 00:23:14.460 currency accidentally minted million dollar historical 00:23:14.460 --> 00:23:17.099 artifacts out of pocket change. So I pose this 00:23:17.099 --> 00:23:18.900 to you listening, if our government were to suddenly 00:23:18.900 --> 00:23:21.700 mandate the recall and total destruction of all 00:23:21.700 --> 00:23:23.400 physical currency tomorrow, just wipe it out 00:23:23.400 --> 00:23:26.359 entirely in favor of a digital grid, what every 00:23:26.359 --> 00:23:28.259 day completely overlooked object from your life 00:23:28.259 --> 00:23:30.500 right now would future generations put behind 00:23:30.500 --> 00:23:32.720 protective glass and consider our era's most 00:23:32.720 --> 00:23:34.319 beautiful, priceless artifact.