Q. David Bowers
The Gold Dollar Design
Charles Keck was eventually selected to design the gold dollar. Surviving correspondence Signed by Treasury Secretary William Gibbs McAdoo, (who, incidentally, was a numismatist), discussed Keck's early proposals showing several variations of Poseidon, the sea god, facing right: "The design for the $1 piece is better [than the $50 piece]. While the head of Poseidon is good, it takes up too much room, and the trident and hand are awkwardly placed. The $1 coin is so very small, that to make the letters sufficiently large to be decipherable, any decoration, such as a head, must necessarily be very small. I am not sure that some more appropriate head than that of Poseidon cannot be found for a coin of this Exposition."
Charles Keck went back to the drawing board and created three new motifs, one featuring explorer Balboa and two others consisting of different versions of a Panama canal worker wearing a cap. Secretary McAdoo preferred the worker, and this motif eventually became a reality. Shown on the finished coin was the head and neck of a typical laborer at the Panama Canal, wearing a cloth cap, facing to the viewer's left, with UNITED STATES OF AMERICA in two lines in front of the worker's face. The reverse illustrated two dolphins, symbolizing the meeting of two oceans, the Atlantic and Pacific. "This design is thoroughly American and a bold piece of work," noted later historian David M. Bullowa. Reduction of the models and preparation of dies were accomplished by the Medallic Art Company of New York.
The Numismatist, August 1915, commented on the new commemoratives and took exception to the design of the gold dollar particular: "Numismatics has received a new impetus by the government's issue of the Panama Exposition coins. Unfortunately these are put out at double face, a handicap which is quite serious in the case of the fifty-dollar pieces; and there are two of these, one round the other octagonal, in memory of the slugs of the earliest settlers. The fifty cent piece is an attractive coin and the quarter eagle is of considerable artistic merit, but the gold dollar is an abomination. Nearly everyone who sees the piece wants to know why they put the head of a ball player on it. Not one correctly guessed that the profile represented 'labor.' Labor as heretofore depicted is shown with a strong intellectual face, brawny arms and the implements of mechanical work. Note the figure on the two-dollar bill. (A reference to the design of the Series of 1899 $2 Silver Certificate engraved by G.F.C. Smillie (listed as Friedberg Nos. 249-158 in Paper Money of the United States). Allegorical figures of Mechanics (a full-figure male; the embodiment of "Labor" referred to in the above critique) and Agriculture (a goddess) were depicted, flanking a portrait of George Washington. Such $2 notes were in circulation in 1915.) A very different conception to the face with a vacant stare and the brow covered with a slouch hat. Good or bad, they add to the slowly lengthening series of commemorative coins issued by our government-an interesting series to collect and at the present time within the reach of all, although some are difficult to find at advancing prices."
In contrast to the preceding opinion in the 1916 volume of the American Journal of Numismatics, an unnamed reviewer liked the choice of a worker for the obverse motif: "Mr. Keck's design for the gold dollar with a workman's head is, as regards choice of subject, certainly appropriate for that particular denomination-the workman and the dollar made the canal possible."
Writing in 1971, Cornelius Vermeule praised the motif: "Charles Keck's gold dollar is a novel, daring use of the limited area afforded by such a small, thin coin. Compared with the earlier gold dollars, the coin is a work of art. It is not the sculptor's fault that the head of a man in a cap, symbolizing a laborer on the Panama Canal, was jokingly mistaken for a baseball player. Americans have been given to poking fun at the creative arts in all ages of our history."
Production and Distribution of the Gold Dollar
From May through July 1915, 25,034 Panama-Pacific gold dollars were struck at the San Francisco Mint, the extra 34 being reserved for assay. Farran Zerbe offered the commemorative gold dollars for $2 each (price later raised to $2.25 after the Exposition closed) to fairgoers and collectors. Many of these were distributed in protective paper envelopes, as were other Panama-Pacific coins when sold singly. Sales of the gold dollars were satisfactory, more or less, and it is believed that thousands of examples were sold. However, in the autumn of 1916, when sales efforts terminated, 10,000 remaining coins were shipped to the Treasury for melting, although Zerbe retained an ample quantity of additional unsold pieces. The net number of Panama-Pacific commemorative gold dollars eventually distributed totaled 15,000. Probably most were sold singly, and not more than a few hundred were distributed as part of four- or five-piece sets.
Examples of the 1915-S Panama-Pacific gold dollar remained plentiful on the numismatic market for decades thereafter with B. Max Mehlin particular having a sizable holding. Some of Mehl's coins were later sold in the 1950's to Sol Kaplan, a Cincinnati dealer, through the efforts of Abe Kosoff, who obtained them from Mehl.
Collecting 1915-S Panama-Pacific Gold Dollars
Most specimens of the 1915-S Panama-Pacific International Exposition gold dollar known today are in varying levels of Mint State. The issue remains one of the most available and most popular gold dollars of the early era.
GRADING SUMMARY: Examine the laborer's cap and check it at several angles to the light to look for friction. Also check the high spots of the dolphins on the reverse. Friction is the rule (especially on the obverse), not the exception. Even the experts are apt to grade Panama-Pacific gold dollars with differences of a point or two.