United States Twenty-dollar Gold Piece 1905-7, gold coin 1911 Augustus Saint-Gaudens American Having proclaimed the coinage produced by the United States Mint uninspired and commonplace, President Theodore Roosevelt invited Saint-Gaudens to redesign the ten- and twenty-dollar gold coins and the one-cent piece. Some ten months later, in November 1905, Saint-Gaudens submitted his preliminary sketches, becoming the first artist unaffiliated with the Mint to design a regular coinage issue. Roosevelt later declared the resulting coins (his "pet crime") were more beautiful than any since the days of the ancient Greeks.The obverse of the twenty-dollar ("double eagle") coin depicts the dynamic figure of Liberty striding forward, derived from Saint-Gaudenss "Victory" from the "Sherman Monument" (17.90.1). Behind her is the U. S. Capitol with rays of sun symbolizing enlightenment bursting upwards. On the reverse is a soaring eagle, inspired by the eagle on the 1857 and 1858 pennies. For these d