While the origins and impact of Augustus Saint-Gaudens' designs are often studied, the coinage of Bela Lyon Pratt is often neglected. Perhaps this is due to Saint-Gaudens' outstanding reputation as an important artist on an international level or the general agreement that the Double Eagle designed by Saint-Gaudens' in 1907 is one of the most beautiful coins ever produced. Still, the designs of Pratt deserve to be studied as important in their own right. His designs for the Quarter Eagle and Half Eagle are often related to the renaissance in American coinage during Theodore Roosevelt's Presidential term, but rarely are they studied individually. Through the support of William Sturgis Bigelow, Bela Lyon Pratt created one of the most truly American as well as one of the more controversial United States' coin design.
The Manifest Destiny, formed on the religious justification that the White Europeans were the chosen people and the Native Americans disposable, provided the basis for much of nineteenth century polity. Towards the dawn of the twentieth century, the new trend was Assimilation, which was successful only after most of the Native population had been killed. In the early twentieth century, the Indian was an artifact of a noble and savage culture that was sacrificed for the sake of progress. It was fitting that an American coin would reflect this noble savage who had disappeared forever from the American frontier.
Boston physician William Sturgis Bigelow was a friend of Roosevelt and it was his influence that secured Pratt's place in American numismatic history. Bigelow was a noted collector of ancient and Far Eastern art and originated the idea of American coinage employing an incuse relief with the Egyptian reliefs in Boston's Museum of Fine Arts serving as a reference. Bigelow was not the first to bring incuse relief to coins. In 1792, Philadelphia publisher Matthew Carey suggested intaglio coins with a recessed design. While appearing normal at a distance, the recessed relief would prevent wear on the design. What was acceptable three thousand years ago, and what was proposed two hundred years ago, was a radical change to the conventional American coinage of the early twentieth century. Roosevelt allowed Bigelow to suggest an artist for the design and Bela Lyon Pratt was asked around New Year's Day, 1908.
Bela Lyon Pratt was a pupil of Augustus Saint-Gaudens and was born on December 11, 1867 in Norwich Connecticut. He enrolled in the Yale School of Fine Arts at the age of sixteen and in three years entered the Art Students' League of New York. While working for Saint-Gaudens' he applied to and received admission to the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, France. In 1892, he returned to the United States and served as an instructor of sculpting at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts School while at the same time keeping a private studio. In his career, he was awarded a silver medal at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York and his sculptures can be found at the Library of Congress.
In selecting a theme, Pratt used an American Indian that was vastly different from Longacre's vapid Indian maiden. While Longacre's figures were simply American girls in Indian bonnets, Pratt worked to create an Indian that embodied the contemporary Native American, although not a specific person. Pratt's model remains unknown by name or tribe, but he wears a war headdress far more opulent than any of the prior issues. Featured on the obverse is a Ptolemaic eagle derivative from Saint-Gaudens' Double Eagle, which was based upon the 1905 Inaugural medal of Theodore Roosevelt designed by Saint-Gaudens and executed by Adolph A. Weinman, of Walking Liberty half dollar fame. Walter Breen considers the selection of reverse type to be a deliberate bow to Saint Gaudens and a deliberate tweak to Barber.
Pratt showed obvious pride in his designs and placed his initials directly below the bust of the Indian. Although the public reacted to the placement of Victor David Brenner 's initials centered at the bottom of the reverse Lincoln Head Cent in 1909, the public showed little interest in the conspicuous placement of Pratt's autograph on his gold issues. Such initials surely didn't please Charles Barber and the rest of the Mint engraving staff whose own efforts in design were inferior to the talents outside of the mint. Charles Barber, the engraver of the die, must have abhorred placing Pratt's initials so prominently on the obverse as his own designs for the Double Eagle had been rejected just two years prior. Barber protested the designs by holding up production of the models until October 9, 1908 when the first Indian Head quarter eagles left Philadelphia's Mint.
Roosevelt held Pratt's designs in modest regard. While he freely praised Saint-Gaudens' contributions, he said little of Pratt's. The public as a whole was not receptive to the Indian theme and the incuse relief. Noted Philadelphia Numismatist R. S. Chapman wrote a letter to President Roosevelt that was reprinted in the February 1909 issue of The Numismatist. While often abbreviated when referenced, it's a colorful representation of early twentieth century numismatics and the concerns of the contemporary numismatist:
”...The head of the Indian is without artistic merit, and portrays an Indian who is emaciated, totally unlike the big, strong Indian chiefs as seen in real life. The treatment of the head is crude and hard, with sharp, abrupt outlines, as if carved by a mere metal chaser; and on the reverse is a reproduction of the Saint-Gaudens' eagle, which represents not our national bird (the while headed eagle-commonly but erroneously called the bald headed eagle-which has no feathers on its feet, )but resembles more closely the golden eagle, which is also indigenous to Europe.
The Placing of the design below the surface of the flan, with deeply incised outlines, gives the effect of having been engraved into the metal, and can, therefore, be closely imitated by any metal chaser with the gaver, without dies or moulds. And I am certain that if this had been suggested to the secret service officials it would never had been issued by the Treasury Department, and the issuance ought to be immediately stopped and the coins recalled, for every one will be in danger of the imitations.
The sunken design, especially the deeply sunken portion of the neck of the Indian, will be a great receptacle for dirt and conveyor of disease, and the coin will be the most unhygienic ever issued.
The principal claim put out for this coin, and which, according to the claim, would appear to be the most important any design can have, is that it will stack...Coins should be like a table, which we do not make with a flat bottom, but with feet to stand upon, and this result in coins can and has always been obtained by a flat rim.
And the new coins, being thinner, as the metal is taken up by the full field, they do not make stacks equal in height to the old, and when mixed with the other issue cause the piles to be of unequal height, and the cashier cannot use the height of the stack as a test of count, but must sort this issue out...These coins will be a disgrace to out country as a monument of our present ideas of art as applied to coinage.
As compared with those of recent issues of European countries, not to mention the beautiful works of the ancient Greek coin engravers, it is an utterly miserable, hideous production, and let us hope that its issue will not be continued and that it will be recalled and melted.”
Chapman concludes his letter with a request that the coins be recalled and melted. But, his letter was not the unanimous voice for numismatics. Bigelow responded in the same issue of The Numismatist with a rebuttal, but all criticism was without purpose for the coinage Act of September 26, 1890 limited design changes to every 25 years.
Although some points of agreement can be found with the design criticisms, the concerns with increased counterfeiting are without merit since, as Bigelow notes, "If a forger were going to engrave anything he would not waste his labor on a single coin. It would be as easy to engrave a die as a coin of any issue". Also without merit was the accusation that the incused relief would be more conducive to the transmission of disease. Although science has shown that the relief has no effect on the amount of germs that a coin caries, Bigelow presents a more entertaining reason. "The question of hygiene has more relation to silver coins than gold, as they find their way into dirtier pockets. A dirty gold coin would be an anomaly". But, Chapman's final claim did have some merit.
While the public complained about the design and numismatists worried about the transmission of disease and the apparent simplicity of the production of counterfeits, bankers expressed concern about how the new gold coins would not stack. The absence of a rim extending from edge to edge prevented the stacking of coins and the lack of thickness did not help in any way. But, "The ability of gold coins to be stacked was not as important as collectors had been led to believe. Banks generally used special boxes for storing and counting gold pieces. Each box contained numerous tiers, and each tier had a sliding partition. When a tier was paid out, the partition was removed and the next tier was at hand. These boxes held about $2,000 to $5,000 worth of coins (with the $5,000 box weighing more than twenty pounds)".
Over the next couple of years, the coins circulated and the controversy eventually subsided. The Quarter Eagles were struck at the Philadelphia and Denver Mints from 1908 through 1915 and then from 1926 through 1929. While there are no true rarities in the series, the 1911-D is considered the key coin with a mintage of 55,680 pieces. Still, the quarter eagles are plentiful and putting together a complete set consists of 15 coins.
Collecting the Half Eagles is a much more challenging task than the Quarter Eagles. Struck from 1908 through 1916 at the Philadelphia, New Orleans, Denver, and San Francisco Mint, in 1929, Philadelphia struck 662,000 pieces and most were melted. due to the 1933 law that prohibited private ownership of bullion gold. Today, several hundred survive and the 1929 is the undoubted key to the series. The Half Eagles are also notably rare in Gem Uncirculated grades and although a complete set consists of 24 pieces, the 1929 is out of the range of most collectors.
Pratt deserves admiration for his design. In its nearly photo-realistic depiction of an Indian, it foreshadows trends of modern commemorative design. In terms of its naturalistic depiction of an Indian, it serves to foreshadow James Fraser's Buffalo Nickel. But we may even look to this issue as a commemorative coin, celebrating the America's colonization and conquest of the American Indian.
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