The design shows Liberty facing right with the date below and slightly to the left. Above the date on the left side are seven stars followed by LIBERTY and the six remaining stars. Liberty is wearing a large, soft cap, and her hair flows down her side and back and shows on her forehead. The bust is strangely draped for a classical design, which was Scotts goal. The reverse shows the heraldic eagle taken from the Great Seal of the United States. The legend UNITED STATES OF AMERICA surrounds the design. A banner from wing to wing has the motto E PLURIBUS UNUM. There are thirteen stars between the eagles head and the clouds above. In its claws the eagle holds the traditional arrows and olive branch, symbolic of war as well as peace. The shield, with its vertical and horizontal stripes, represents the Union.

Scotts obverse design was probably taken from a Roman engraving that copied a Greek goddess. Libertys cap was certainly not a pilleus or liberty cap. The liberty cap, emblematic of freedom, was worn by freed slaves and freed gladiators in Roman times. It was a close fitting cap used to cover a shorn head, which was one of the way slaves were identified. The oversized cap worn by Liberty has been called a turban, and the design has been called the Turban Head because of it. On the heraldic reverse of the coin, Scott mixed up the positions of the arrows and olive branch of peace. The arrows held in the wrong claw signify defiant militarism. Either Scott made an error copying the image of the Great Seal, or he deliberately changed the symbolism in keeping with a potential political mistake.