| In 1908 A student of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, sculptor Bela Lyon Pratt designed final type of the $5 Indian, as well as the $2.50 Indian. The composition, weight, and diameter of the coin remained unchanged, but both the obverse and reverse were drastically altered.President Theodore Roosevelt played an important role in revamping the $5 Indian and was referred to Pratt by a friend, Dr. William Sturgis Bigelow.
The picture of an Indian Chief is featured on the obverse (front) of the coin. This marks the first true American Indian to ever appear on U.S. coinage. The chief is wearing a feathered headdress, encircled by the word ‘LIBERTY’, 13 stars, and the minting date.
The new design matched the new quarter eagle design of the same date. These two series are unique in United States coinage because the design and inscriptions are stamped in incuse, rather than being raised from the surface, meaning that the flat surfaces are the highest points of the coin. The obverse depicted an Indian head wearing a feathered headdress. The reverse depicted a perched eagle with the inscriptions “E PLURIBUS UNUM” and “IN GOD WE TRUST”. Production of the half eagle was suspended during World War I and not resumed until 1929, the final year of issue. |
