Artwork Details
- Title
- United States Silver Dollar Coin (reverse)
- Artist
- Date
- 1921
- Location
- Not on view
- Dimensions
- 1 1⁄2 in. (3.9 cm) diam.
- Credit Line
- Gift of Mrs. Anthony de Francisci
- Mediums
- Mediums Description
- silver
- Keywords
- Animal — bird — eagle
- Allegory — place — America
- Object Number
- 1966.51.80
Artwork Description
This silver dollar commemorates the end of World War I and the international conference on limitation of armaments. The United States Commission of Fine Arts, established by Congress in 1910, selected Anthony de Francisci’s design for the coin. The original design for the reverse showed the eagle grasping a broken sword, but many Americans saw this as a symbol of defeat and protested the image. With no time to make new models, United States Mint engraver George Morgan, working under de Francisci’s supervision, cut the sword from the steel hub and crafted olive leaves from the remains. The work took a full day to complete and the change went undetected for eighty years.