Commems Collection Classic: 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition - Tidbits / $2.50

Time for a few notes about the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition Gold Quarter Eagle...


Tidbit #1

New York artist, Evelyn Beatrice Longman, was originally selected to design the Panama-Pacific Gold Quarter Eagle. She had prepared initial sketches for her designs but took seriously ill during a trip to Washington, DC and had to withdraw from the coin project.

She did, however, have examples of her work on display at the Exposition:

- the Fountain of Ceres in the Court of Four Seasons
- L'Amore near the Palace of Fine Arts

The Charles Barber/George Morgan team took over the coin assignment and created the designs with which collectors are familiar.

For more on the story, see:

- What If? 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition Gold $2.50


Tidbit #2

Ancient mythology was featured in the coin's obverse design, crafted by Charles Barber. It presents an allegorical figure of Columbia - the personification of the United States - seated on a hippocampus - a fictitious animal that dates to the times of Greek mythology (and other ancient cultures, e.g., the Romans); a hippocampus was said to be an animal that combined the front quarters of a horse with the body and tail of a fish. In mythology, hippocampi pulled Poseidon's chariot.

For other classic-era US commemorative coins that include mythology within ther designs, see:

- US Commemorative Coins Depicting Mythology


Tidbit#3

The Public Law that authorized the Pan-Pac commemorative coinage states:

"The coinage shall be executed as soon as may be [possible]and the delivery of said coins to begin not later than the day of the opening of the exposition."

The Exposition opened on February 20, 1915. The Mint struck the authorized limit of 10,000 coins (plus 17 for assay purposes)at the San Francisco Branch Mint in June 1915. Clearly, the coins were not available when the Exposition opened.

Ultimately, 3,251 Quarter Eagles were returned to the Mint to be melted.


Tidbit#4

While the other Pan-Pac coins were sold for twice their fsce value (i.e., the Gold Dollar sold for $2.00), the Gold Quarter Eagle was sold for $4.00 - less than double its face value (i.e., $5.00). As noted above, this "value" was not enough to drive sales of the coin to the sell-out level. ($4.00 was a meaningful sum in 1915! It could buy 50+ loaves of bread, 11 dozen eggs, 5+ gallons of milk, 10 pounds of butter, 4 men's shirts, a women's cotton dress, 3 or 4 pairs of women's shoes or about 25 gallons of gasoline!)


1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition Gold Quarter Eagle



For other of my posts about commemorative coins and medals, including other Tidbits, see: Commems Collection