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1923-D $20 Saint Gaudens Double Eagle PCGS MS65 (CAC)

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SKU
1561095

Here's a great gold type coin in gem grade with the always desirable CAC sticker. PCGS has graded 2,704 in MS65, with 2,157 finer. In CAC, there are 238 in MS65, with 292 finer.

Overlooked No More: Hettie Anderson, Sculptors' Model Who Evaded Fame - The  New York Times

A plaster model for the original 'Roman Numeral' version of the 1907 double eagle by Saint-Gaudens, featuring Hettie Anderson. 

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 arrived 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..."

 

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More Information
PCGS # 9176
Grading Service NONE
Year of Issue NONE
Grade NONE
Denom Type N/A
Numeric Denomination $20
Mint Location NONE
Designation NONE
Circ/UnCirc Not Specified
Strike Type N/A
Grade Add On NONE
Holder Type N/A

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