![]() ![]() He was America’s greatest living artist and he was running out of time. Doctors told her that it would likely come back. His wife, fearing his mental state, never told him he had cancer. According to researcher David Tripp, the seriousness of Saint-Gaudens’ illness made him contemplate suicide. He had developed a serious condition that doctors would reveal to his wife to be a form of rectal cancer. In 1900, at the age of 52, Saint-Gaudens had to return to the U.S. He turned down more commissions than he could possibly accept. The world-renowned sculptor, venerated in his time and even more so sense, had a serious distaste for the Mint’s bureaucracy and an even lesser opinion of its chief engraver. That American sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens would have a hand in creating that design and remaking American coinage was no easy accomplishment. It was an ignoble end for the most spectacular of all American coin designs. ![]() When the United States made the controversial decision in 1933 to suspend the gold standard that it had based its monetary policy on since the turn of the 20th century, most double eagles dated that year were summarily melted down. Only one surviving specimen was ever monetized and made legal to own, yet an uncertain number of examples still exist. The 1933 double eagle $20 gold coin is one of American Numismatics’ most notorious coins. By Charles Morgan and Hubert Walker for CoinWeek …. ![]()
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