1907 High Relief Wire Rim - 1907 $20 High Relief Wire Rim, NGC AU55. This Choice AU 1907 Wire Rim double eagle glows with smoldering mint luster in protected areas. The surface has a matt texture that is grainy rather than frosty. Slight wear is noted on Libertys left knee and the top of the eagles wing, in keeping with the grade. The strike is strong on the obverse and above average on the reverse with full details seen on Libertys drapery and the Capitol building. Yellow-gold patina covers both surfaces of the coin.

There are two varieties, the flat rim and the knife-rim, which are also called the flat edge and the wire edge, of which the present coin is an example. The wire edge is actually a rim or flange around half or more of one or both sides of the coin. It was made when metal was squeezed between the collar and the die. Most researchers believe that the flange was made unintentionally since it caused problems in ejecting the coins as they were struck. The jealous Engraver, Charles Barber, used this characteristic as one of the reasons to remake the coin with lower relief, and he did so with the date in Arabic numbers on later 1907 coins.

Augustus Saint-Gaudens designed the High Relief double eagle, and most numismatists feel that it is his most important work. Struck in high relief, Liberty is seen at full length facing the viewer as the sun rises behind her. She holds a torch, symbol of liberty, in her right hand and an olive branch in her left.  On her right at the bottom is the Capitol building. LIBERTY is inscribed above her head, and she is surrounded by forty-six stars, one for each state in the Union at the time. Saint-Gaudens took the figure of liberty from his statue of Victory in New York City. The reverse of the coin shows a magnificent eagle in flight to the left above the sun. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and TWENTY DOLLARS form a double arc above it. The words are separated by dots. 

Saint-Gaudens deliberately left off the motto IN GOD WE TRUST at the request of President Roosevelt, a religious man who felt that it was blasphemous to have Gods name inscribed on a coin. He did not wish the name of Lord on coins to be dropped and stepped on or passed around brothels, saloons, gambling halls or used for other immoral purposes.

Saint-Gaudens was born in Ireland, the son of a shoemaker. He became one of Americas most successful sculptors of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In 1848, his family moved from Dublin to New York before his first birthday. When he was thirteen, Saint-Gaudens left school and became an apprentice to a cameo cutter. He also took classes at Cooper Union and the National Academy of Design. When he was nineteen, he moved to Europe where he studied classical art and architecture.      

His first commission was a statue of Admiral Farragut that is still in Madison Square Park in New York. By the 1890s Saint-Gaudens had produced his statues of Diana and Abraham Lincoln, both considered some of his greatest works. He also created well known works in Boston and Chicago. He became part of a group of new artists and architects and worked for an architectural firm for whom he produced a group of monuments and decorative sculpture. Throughout his career, he worked with architects creating works that were designed specifically for the sites they were building. At the entrance to New Yorks Central Park is his bronze statue of General Sherman led by Victory. It took him eleven years to complete this project.

Saint-Gaudens moved to his summer home in Cornish, New Hampshire in 1900. Joined there by a community of artists, Saint-Gaudens spent his final years. He died of stomach cancer in 1907 just after he created the beautiful high relief models for the eagle and double eagle coins.

The High Relief double eagle is a favorite of both collectors and investors because of its numismatic and historic importance and its beauty.