George Washington and the National Coinage
Even during the Confederation period, George Washington supported Thomas Jefferson and other advocates of a national coinage in a variety of metals. His popularity, to the point of adulation by the end of the Revolution, led to calls for his image to appear on the new coinage, a proposition that he is believed to have actively discouraged. He is, however, credited with having supplied the silver for the first coinage produced under the Constitution.
 George Washington in the Golden Chariot Pulled by Cheetahs, ca. 1785. Cotton toile de Jouy. Great Britain. Textile printing in America followed a development analogous to that of minting, with sophisticated technology appearing only at the end of the eighteenth century. This panel, part of a continuous bolt that also depicts The Apotheosis of Franklin, is one of several produced in England for the American market almost immediately after the cessation of hostilities. The portrait of Washington was taken from that done from life by Pierre Eugène Du Simitière (ca. 1736–1784). |
 Gift of André de Coppet, Class of 1915 George Washington (1732–1799). Autograph letter signed to William Grayson, Mount Vernon, August 22, 1785. Grayson (1736–1790), a former aide-de-camp to Washington and a fellow Virginian, opposed the Federalist demand for a stronger national government. In this letter, Washington voices his support for Thomas Jefferson’s “Propositions Respecting the Coinage of Gold, Silver and Copper,” written in May 1785. The last sentence on the first page begins, “I thank you for the several articles of intelligence contained in your letter, and for the proposition respecting a coinage of gold, silver & copper, a measure which in my judge[ment]. . . .” |
 Gift of Grenville Kane. Pierre Eugène Du Simitière (ca. 1736–1784). George Washington. Plate 1 from Collection des portraits. . . . First state, Paris, 1781. Du Simitière was an artist and antiquarian of Swiss origin whose collection of ancient and modern coins was on public display in his home in Philadelphia at the time of the Revolution. George Washington visited there in 1779 and sat for three-quarters of an hour for the portrait sketch from which this engraving is derived. |
 Amos Doolittle (1754–1832). Gen. George Washington, ca. 1799. Engraving. This image from the time of Washington’s funeral exemplifies the adulation lavished on him by contemporaries. |
 Gift of Bertram Lippincott, Class of 1923. Adam Smith (1723–1790). An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. A new ed. 3 vols. Philadelphia: T. Dobson, 1789. Adam Smith, whose Wealth of Nations guided the founders’ understanding of the importance of coinage, considered the money of a given country to be a “more or less accurate measure of value” depending upon the degree to which it adhered to the official standard. This copy is from George Washington’s private library. |
 United States, Second Congress, 1st session (1791–1792). Journal of the Senate. Philadelphia: John Fenno, 1792. A bill establishing the Mint of the United States passed the Senate on January 12, 1792, with the provision that the coins bear the “representation of the head of the President of the United States for the time being.” The House of Representatives objected to this provision, acting on George Washington’s presumed wishes. The bill went back and forth from chamber to chamber until March 27, when the Senate accepted the House’s version calling for an “impression emblematic of Liberty” as the obverse image instead of a presidential portrait. |
 Bequest of Henry N. Ess III, Class of 1942. Edward Gibbon (1737–1794). The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. 1st ed., 1st issue. 6 vols. London: W. Strahan and T. Cadell, 1776–1788. The objection to an image of George Washington on the obverse of the new coinage was raised not against his own person but ostensibly against the possibility that future presidents would have to be so honored. Opponents pointed to the successors of Augustus, such as Nero, Caligula, and Elagabalus, who appeared on coins of the Roman Empire. The choice of the third of these villainous emperors probably derived from his depiction in Gibbon’s monumental history, a popular work in the period but controversial for its anti-Christian viewpoint. |
 gift of Frederick W. Brown, Class of 1897 |
 Gift of Frederick W. Brown, Class of 1897 |
 Gift of E. C. Pomeroy, Class of 1905 |
 Gift of Mark and Lotte Salton. |
 Philip Freneau (1752–1832). Poems, Written between the Years 1768 & 1794. New ed. Monmouth, N.J.: Printed at the press of the author, 1795. This patriotic poem, greeting Washington at the end of the Revolution on his way to retirement, compares his achievements with those of ancient emperors and contemporary monarchs. |
 Gift of Cornelius C. Vermeule III in memory of Emily Townsend Vermeule Benjamin Duvivier (1728–1819). Washington before Boston, 1789. Bronze restrike, U. S. Mint, after 1884. The retreat of British troops from Boston on March 5, 1776, was one of the first major American victories, and the Continental Congress voted a gold medal to Washington within that month as an expression of gratitude. Like other medals authorized for Revolutionary War heroes, the piece would be struck in France, the center of medallic artistry and technology. For this medal, a portrait was deemed necessary, and a long delay ensued as the sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon (1741–1828) first traveled to America and then returned to Paris with a sculpted bust of Washington to be copied by the medal engraver. The project was initiated by Franklin and completed by Jefferson, who brought the gold medal back to America with him in 1789. Restrikes of the medal have been produced regularly at both the United States Mint and the Paris Mint. |
Case Group 5B
 Gift of E. C. Pomeroy, Class of 1905. |
