"I Suppose I shall be impeached for it…"

Theodore Roosevelt, Augustus Saint-Gaudens and America's most
beautiful coin

New York, NY - The American Numismatic Society, in conjunction with the
Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site and the Federal Reserve Bank of New
York, takes great pleasure in announcing the opening of an important and
unprecedented new exhibition: "I suppose I shall be impeached for
it…" Theodore Roosevelt, Augustus Saint-Gaudens and America's
Most Beautiful Coin. This exhibit, held at the Federal Reserve Bank of
New York at 33 Liberty St., will be on view from September 20, 2007
through March 31, 2008. Visit
http://numismatics.org/exhibits/SaintGaudensEXHIBT.htm
<http://numismatics.org/exhibits/SaintGaudensEXHIBT.htm> for more
information.

2007 marks not only the centenary year of the death of
Augustus Saint-Gaudens, America's greatest sculptor of the late 19th
and early 20th centuries, but also the release of his revolutionary and
controversial designs for the twenty- and ten-dollar gold pieces. Today
these are hailed as the most beautiful coins ever produced by the U.S.



At a White House diplomatic supper in January 1905, President
Theodore Roosevelt approached Augustus Saint-Gaudens with his hopes to
improve upon the "atrocious hideousness" of America's coins.
Although the artist was reluctant to agree to the President's wishes
due to ill health and prior unpleasant experiences with the United
States Mint, Saint-Gaudens took on the task. This partnership of artist
and president to create new designs for coinage remains unparalleled in
American history.

The exhibition at the New York Federal Reserve Bank will,
for the first time, draw together elements of all phases of this
remarkable partnership and commission. The collections of the
Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site, the American Numismatic Society
and the Rauner Special Collections Library at Dartmouth College contain
an incomparable array of material charting virtually all phases of the
commission as well as Saint-Gaudens' career as a cameo-cutter,
sculptor and medalist.

Examples of early cameos will be displayed along with some
of the classical numismatic prototypes that Saint-Gaudens is known to
have used as inspiration. Examples of his medallic work ranging from
private commissions for friends to the 1889 Washington Inaugural
Centennial to examples of the Columbian Exposition Award medal will be
included.

The centerpiece of the exhibition will be the progression
of the design process for the new coinage and will concentrate on the
"double eagle". Correspondence with the president, examples of
Saint-Gaudens' original pencil sketches, plaster models, and the
massive 12-inch plaster of the famed Ultra High Relief will be on view.
Included will be the series of electrotypes for the ultra high relief
coin, showing the progression of the multiple strikes needed to fully
bring up the detail.

Augustus Saint-Gaudens quite literally gave some of his
very last thoughts to bettering his fellow Americans' coinage. The
depth of his impact can be still be felt in our pockets today, for the
inventiveness and artistic integrity that Saint-Gaudens brought to
American coin design was continued by his students' work: James
Earle Fraser's buffalo nickel, Adolf Weinman's mercury dime and
walking Liberty half dollar, and finally James Flanagan's Washington
quarter which is still circulating today.

"I suppose I shall be impeached for it…" Theodore Roosevelt,
Augustus Saint-Gaudens and America's Most Beautiful Coin will be on
view at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, 33 Liberty Street, New
York, NY from September 20, 2007 through March 31, 2008. Exhibition
hours are 10:00am to 4:00pm Monday through Friday. Visit
http://numismatics.org/exhibits/SaintGaudensEXHIBT.htm
<http://numismatics.org/exhibits/SaintGaudensEXHIBT.htm> for more
information.



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