1913-S $20 Saint Gaudens Double Eagle NGC MS61 (CAC)

Curiously, this is a rare coin, yet not as rare as its low mintage of 34,000 would indicate. As Jeff Garrett writes, "This date is very popular as the third lowest mintage Double Eagle after the 1907 High Relief and the 1908-S .... For some reason, a significant number were saved; they probably sat out the first half of the [twentieth] century in European or South American bank vaults. The 1913-S is a classic conditional rarity." NGC has graded 202 as MS61 with 779 finer. Collectors Universe prices this issue at $5,000.00 in MS61. In CAC, there are 5 in MS61 with 164 finer. CAC give the 1913-S $20 Saint a price of $5,100.00.

Hettie Anderson, who served as Saint-Gaudens’ model for Victory on his famous double eagle coin.

It was only in 1991 that the numismatic community discovered the identity of the model for the Saint-Gaudens double eagle. Her name was Hettie Anderson, a light-skinned mixed-race woman who arrive in Manhattan in the 1890s. Quite a few artists and sculptors sought to depict what one newspaper account described as her "creamy skin, crisp curling hair, and warm brown eyes."

Hettie's image represents the winged Greek goddess Victory in Saint-Gaudens's equestrian sculpture honoring Civil War general William Tecumseh Sherman, as well as the same upon the Double Eagle (1907-1933). In 1899, the New York Journal and Advertiser wrote, "There is nothing in Greek sculpture finer than her figure. [It is] imposing [and] her carriage queenly..."

She fled bitter prejudice in the post-Reconstruction South to model for the likes of Daniel Chester French, Adolf Weinman, and Saint-Gaudens. Upon arriving in New York, Hettie worked as a clerk and seamstress while studying at the Art Students League. Research tells us that before the Civil War, Anderson's family was designated 'free colored persons'; they owned land and earned wages. In New York, she and her mother were listed in the census as white.

"I need her badly," wrote Saint-Gaudens to a friend. He wrote in a draft of his memoir that he counted on her stamina for "posing patiently, steadily and thoroughly in the Spirit one wished..."