How our early coins show our passion to be free!

The end of the Revolutionary War came about when the British Commons, weary of the war, voted in April of 1782 to end the war in America. On September 3, 1783, the Treaty of Paris was signed, officially ending the Revolutionary War. About that time, Benjamin Franklin with an idea for a medal, commissioned French Engraver Augustin Dupre to prepare the dies for the Paris Mint to strike the ?Libertas Americana? medal in 1783. The reverse design on the ?Libertas Americana? features Minerva defending the child Hercules from a leopard. The obverse design features the goddess Libertas with a cap and a pole. I believe the ?Libertas Americana? medal is the basis for the designs on our earliest coins, particularly the obverses. A complete explanation of ?Libertas Americana? with detailed stories and descriptions of both the obverse and reverse are found using the following link. http://www.coincats.com/Libertas%2008feb10%20small.pdf

It is likely that a close friend of Benjamin Franklin?s family, Joseph Wright designed the obverse of the ?Libertas Americana? medal, and that he used his then girlfriend, Sarah Vandervoort as a model. The visual evidence of this is a side-by-side comparison between a family portrait of Sarah Wright and the ?Libertas Americana? medal. It is also likely that Joseph Wright designed the 1792 Disme and 1793 Half Cent because the obverses are very similar to the ?Libertas Americana?. The inspiration for Joseph Wright to use a cap and pole in his design is most likely from a drawing of his mother, Patience Wright holding a liberty cap on a pole. Unfortunately, Joseph Wright, ?First Draughtsman and Diesinker? at the Philadelphia mint died in 1793. However, there are similarities in all our early coins to the flowing hair design continued by the US Mint?s first chief engraver, Robert Scot.

The flowing hair design shows ?Lady Liberty?s? hair flowing backwards to show that she is moving forward. The goddess ?Libertas? is distinguished from other Roman goddesses in the things she carried. In her one hand is a long wand called a ?vindicta? and in the other, a soft cap called a ?pileus?. Roman slaves were proclaimed free when the praetor tapped them on their shoulder with his wand and gave them a small cap or pileus as a token of their freedom. Thus, the liberty cap and pole, symbols of emancipation, became popular symbols in our defiance of tyranny during the early years of our republic.

The medal pictured below is a Paris Mint re-strike of the original ?Libertas American? medal. This medal struck in 2006 commemorates the October 1781 ?Battle of Yorktown?. This battle was one of the last key battles that led to the end of the Revolutionary War. This medal is also eligible for certification by NGC and will eventually find its way into my ?Inspirational Ladies? signature set. Next up, how we came within a cat?s whisker of the ?Libertas Americana? becoming the basis for one of our modern coins. Happy collecting all!

Gary