Coined: The Rich Life of Money and How Its History Has Shaped Us

by Kabir Sehgal

  The Dean

  Dorothy had it right in The Wizard of Oz—there’s no place like home. And in the field of numismatics, there’s no place like my adopted hometown of New York City, with its many collectors, exhibitions, and shops. Arguably the best-known coin shop in the world is Stack’s, on West Fifty-Seventh Street close to Carnegie Hall. It was founded in the 1930s by two brothers, Joseph and Morton Stack, who traded almost anything to make ends meet during the Great Depression—statues, stamps, rare coins, and even tooth fillings. They couldn’t afford dealing in all of these items, so they specialized in coins that have intrinsic value and can be melted into base metals. Over the decades, Stack’s has hosted more than eight hundred public auctions, becoming perhaps the leading auction house of rare coins.

  One dreary winter morning I visited Stack’s. Inside was only one customer, a man in his mid-thirties who had recently lost his job. He was selling a gold coin that he had owned for fifteen years so that he could pay his bills—he made $350. I wanted to discuss his collection, but I had to move on. Unlike Dorothy, I wasn’t searching for Oz; I was looking for the dean.

  At eighty-five years old, Harvey Stack is a human encyclopedia of numismatics, the dean of coin dealers. In the early 1940s, Morton brought his son Harvey into the shop to sort paperwork, wash showcases, sweep the floors, and make runs to the post office. Harvey began working full-time at Stack’s in 1947 and learned from many great numismatists who all worked at Stack’s, such as Henry Grunthal, curator of the American Numismatics Association; and Elvira and Vladimir Stefanelli, curators of the American Numismatics Collection at the Smithsonian. For decades, Stack’s was known as a clubhouse, open on Saturdays so collectors from the tri-state area could meet there. There was much to discuss as World War II soldiers returned home and brought coins to Stack’s that they gathered from bombed-out banks and museums abroad and wanted to sell. Harvey absorbed much knowledge from these conversations, and with it he developed an impressive career.

  Harvey’s résumé in numismatics is peerless. He has sixty-five years’ experience as a professional numismatist, has conducted the most auctions in the industry, has been a member of the American Numismatics Association for more than fifty years, receiving the group’s “Numismatist of the Year” honor in 1997, and served as head of the Professional Numismatists Guild.41 In 1995 he was one of the people who testified before Congress to propose the creation of the 50 State Quarters Program.42 I was excited to meet the man behind the money.

  “What kind of gun is that?” I asked, surprised to see an armed security guard waiting for me when the elevator door opened.

  “A real one,” Harvey said, laughing. “But we tell them not to shoot anyone,” he whispered. He was dressed in a navy coat, gray slacks, silver sweater, and his trademark yellow-tinted eyeglasses. Forty years ago he contracted the measles and developed encephalitis on his optic nerve, so he wears glasses to shield his eyes from bright light. He steered me into his office and offered me a Diet Coke.

  I asked Harvey what I asked the others—what coins best represent his country? He had difficulty choosing, and not because of the many options but because of a lack of them. Antebellum coinage such as half cents and large cents were influenced by Grecian and Roman designs because the Greek and Roman eras were seen as periods of high culture. From 1892 to 1916, when Charles Barber was chief engraver of the US Mint, coins had Grecian heads. The symbols weren’t the best representatives of the United States. Moreover, there was a law that prohibited changing the design of coins for a twenty-five-year period so that they could be traded without hesitation across the country. Many nineteenth-century US coins had images of Native Americans, and twentieth-century US coins have depictions of US presidents like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. But Harvey doesn’t believe these coins are aesthetically riveting, truly representative of America the Beautiful.

  Finally, Harvey said with a broad smile, “You can’t go wrong with the double eagle.”

  The “double eagle” $20 gold piece, made between 1907 and 1933, is one of the most famous coins in American history, renowned for its beauty. It took the friendship of an artist and a president to make it happen, he explained.

  President Theodore Roosevelt was obsessed with extolling the United States. He came of age after the Civil War, during Reconstruction, and he knew many Americans still defined themselves as being from the North or South. As president, he looked to unify the country by trumpeting Americana: He signed the Antiquities Act, which gave the president power to designate public lands for conservation. He used this to create eighteen monuments and fifty-one bird sanctuaries and protect more than 100 million acres of forest.43 He came to the same conclusion as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Walt Whitman, who thought that America should have an indigenous and representative art so that it could unmoor itself from Europe.44

  When it came to money, Roosevelt wanted to unify the country with common, triumphant symbols that expressed a national self-identity. He described the US coins designed by Charles Barber as “atrocious hideousness.”45 He turned to his friend the sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens for help. Saint-Gaudens had already designed the inaugural medal for then vice president Roosevelt, who said it was “a real addition to the national sum of permanent achievement.”46 In 1904, Roosevelt wrote to the Treasury secretary, “Would it be possible, without asking permission from Congress, to employ a man like Saint-Gaudens to give us a coinage that would have some beauty?”47 It was the first time that a US coin was designed by someone not working for the US Mint and so was a slight to Barber and the rest of the mint staff.

  The $20 gold double eagle was initially designed in 1849 by portraitist James Longacre. On the front was Lady Liberty with a tiara surrounded by thirteen stars. On the back was a wreath and an eagle with the denomination and “United States of America” written around the edge. The coin received a lukewarm reception for its shabby appearance, an “imperfectly formed” eagle that looked “ashamed of itself.”48

  Saint-Gaudens, who was also a numismatist, was paid five thousand dollars to improve these coins, as well as ones of other denominations. His version would be known as the “MCMVII double eagle.” Not only did Roosevelt authorize Saint-Gaudens, but he provided him artistic input:

  How is the gold coinage design coming along? I want to make a suggestion… I was looking up some gold coins of Alexander the Great today, and I was struck by their high relief. Would it be well to have our coins in high relief, and also to have the rims raised? The point of having the rim raised would be, of course, to protect the figure of the coins; and if we have the figures in high relief, like figures on the old Greek coins, they will surely last longer. What do you think of this?49

  Saint-Gaudens welcomed Roosevelt’s suggestions and agreed with his analysis. However, Saint-Gaudens was skeptical that the US Mint would approve a high-relief coin because of the technical requirements and Barber’s lingering resentment at being excluded from the design. Roosevelt explained to the Treasury secretary that this was his “pet baby.”50 Roosevelt thought the secretary saw him as a “crack-brained lunatic on the subject.”51 But in the end, the secretary had “no earthly objection to having those coins as artistic as the Greeks could desire.”52

  Despite dying in 1907 from cancer, Saint-Gaudens had his work live on through his coins. On the front is Liberty striding with a torch in her right hand, olive branch in her left. On the back is an eagle soaring, facing left, over the rising sun, with the denomination and “United States of America” above. The coins required seven blows from the press to create the dramatic relief that Saint-Gaudens envisioned. His design lacked the words “In God We Trust,” as US law didn’t require its inclusion, which generated controversy, so Congress restored it. As a coin, the double eagle was seen as unequaled in American coinage. Roosevelt was thrilled. The market price of these coins moved sharply higher from a face value of $20 to around $30. The coin remained in circulation until 1933, when Roosevelt’s fifth cousin
President Franklin Roosevelt’s Gold Reserve Act required that Americans hand over their gold to the US government.

  David Bowers, legendary numismatist and business partner of Harvey Stack, writes, “In the annals of American numismatics, [it] has been a ‘trophy coin’ par excellence… This coin… represents the epitome of American coinage art.”53 Some five thousand MCMVII double eagles exist today, and almost everyone gasps when one comes up for auction. In fact, the 1933 double eagle once held by King Farouk of Egypt, who had bought it for $1,575, was auctioned for $7.6 million (including commission) in 2002, the highest ever for a rare coin.54 The company that helped run the auction? Well, I was sitting in their office, and its dean had just offered me a Diet Coke.

  Listen Closely

  It’s been said that “money talks,” and indeed it does—through the images and depictions found on it. Every numismatist I met urged me to look closely and study the symbols on the coins. There wasn’t one dramatic takeaway from my conversations, as each collector can interpret a coin differently. But it seemed fitting to end my quest with where I began, examining the creative and symbolic capabilities that we possess that led to the invention of money and drives the reinvention of it. I haven’t started a coin collection as a result, but I examine the unusual coins that I come across and try to work out the meaning of their symbols. These monetary symbols have something to say about our civic and cultural history. They have become symbols of our national values. They are reminders that we can shape money, even as it continues to shape us.

  Epilogue

  I realized that my quest to better understand money had turned into an obsession when I disregarded the US Department of State’s travel warnings while in Dhaka, Bangladesh. I was determined to see the hoards of coins unearthed at Wari-Bateshwar, even if that meant racing past an angry mob of political protesters. I had become consumed with seeing money in new ways, trying to answer my governing question, “What is it about money that makes the world go ’round?” I circumnavigated the globe in search of answers but also found myself, at times, going in circles trying to understand this all-encompassing topic. I took solace when I learned that John Maynard Keynes spent at least five years in search of the beginnings of money, scouring ancient texts. He wrote that he “became absorbed to the point of frenzy.”1 Keynes even referred to his study as “Babylonian madness.”2

  Perhaps the reason for my obsession is that studying money is a never-ending pursuit. It’s always changing, redefined by our needs and reinvented by our imagination. My initial task of writing a black-and-white book on such a colorful topic was to capture the essence of money. Despite looking at this subject through different kaleidoscopic lenses, money can be seen throughout as a symbol of value.

  My biological investigation into the origin of exchange suggests that cooperation and symbolic thought led to the creation of this symbol of value. Humans could see items for their potential, symbolic value. The psychological lens shows that a reward region of the brain, the nucleus accumbens, fires at the thought of gaining monetary benefits, obviously registering that money is a symbol of value, something to be desired. From the Maoris of New Zealand to apartment movers in Montreal, anthropologists have discovered that the journey of this symbol through a community can define the shape of human relationships and contours of a society. Regardless of whether it’s hard, soft, or intangible, money remains something that is desired, and for some, an item to be controlled. Across different faiths, even God recognizes money as a symbol of value, providing detailed instructions on how to handle material wealth. Look more closely at money and it reveals a symbol of our values with telling images struck on ancient and modern coins alike.

  Regardless of how we look at money, it stares back at us. But it isn’t waiting. It’s always moving, shifting, and encroaching on various parts of our lives, and we often don’t realize it. Only with deliberate reflection can we see how its history has shaped us, from helping to control or democratize a society, to obtaining the resources necessary to live. This symbol of value activates our minds, steers our bodies, and helps determine the fate of our souls.

  Because everyone interprets this symbol differently, it takes real, conscious thought to work out what it means to you. But that doesn’t mean I won’t help.

  Recently I had dinner with an Iranian American friend. I shared some of my research from this book with him. He mentioned that in 2009, during the political protests in Iran, protesters wrote antigovernment messages on paper money.3 It proved to be a good way to spread a message through the community.

  The next day, on my walk to work, I passed by a tall lady wearing a gabardine skirt and an indigo scarf on the street and handed her a dollar bill. She was surprised, at first declining it, perhaps not wanting to take on a debt that she couldn’t repay, but she eventually accepted. I had scribbled a message on it, in hopes that it will find you. In the meantime, until it reaches you, you will just have to look more closely at the money that comes your way.

  Acknowledgments

  Culo quadrato: the Italian expression for someone who sits in a chair working so long that he or she gets a “square butt.” It’s the nickname that some of my friends call me because of this book, which took many years to complete. While working at J. P. Morgan and fulfilling my duties as a US Navy reservist, I wrote in the morning, late at night, on weekends, and during the holidays (sorry, Mom!)—on planes, trains, automobiles, and even a submarine base. Without a doubt, it’s the most intellectually demanding project of which I’ve ever been a part, and also the most rewarding.

  Because of the book’s breadth, I had to get up to speed on many different disciplines. I relied on many experts for each chapter. I’m grateful to those who read the manuscript, spotted mistakes, and helped me get (most of) it right:

  Chapter 1: Rachel Gittman and Lindsey Carr, both PhD candidates at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC); Leandro Vaca, Galapagos Science Center lab and field coordinator; Stephen Walsh, professor of geography at UNC and codirector of the Galapagos Science Center; Carlos Valle, professor of evolutionary biology at the Galapagos Science Center; Haim Ofek, professor of economics at the State University of New York at Binghamton.

  Chapter 2: Kenway Louie, research assistant professor, Center for Neural Science at New York University (NYU); Gijs Brouwer, postdoctoral fellow and research scientist in neuroscience at NYU; Brian Knutson, associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at Stanford University; Camelia Kuhnen, associate professor of finance at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School; Dilip Soman, professor of marketing at Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto; Kevin Bynum, BlackRock; Tim Kubarych, Harding Loevner.

  Chapter 3: Randall Wray, professor of economics at the University of Missouri–Kansas City; John Sherry, professor of anthropology at the University of Notre Dame; Steven Garfinkle, professor of history at Western Washington University; Sergei Kan, professor of anthropology and Native American studies at Dartmouth College; Dan Chamby, BlackRock; and Shayne Ebudo, formerly an executive director at J. P. Morgan.

  Chapter 4: Ute Wartenberg Kagan, executive director of American Numismatic Society; Steven Garfinkle; David Sear, formerly at B. A. Seaby and author of Roman Coins and Their Values; Wayne G. Sayles, author of Ancient Coin Collecting; Randall Wray; Lawrence Stack and Harvey Stack, Stack’s Bowers Gallery.

  Chapter 5: Benn Steil, director of international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations; Farley Grubb, professor of economics at the University of Delaware; Justin Leverenz, Oppenheimer; Steve Mariotti, NFTE; Nicolas Rodriguez-Brizuela, Artisan Partners; Nirat Lertchitvikul, Stack’s Bowers Gallery in Hong Kong; Harvey Stack; Lawrence Stack; Chirag Garg; Shayne Ebudo; Kevin Bynum.

  Chapter 6: Balaji Srinivasan, Andreessen Horowitz; Tom Trentman, Sands Capital; Suchit Das, former senior product manager at PayPal; Tien-tsin Huan, J. P. Morgan; Charles Allen, BitcoinShop; Michal Handerhan, BitcoinShop; Moshe Cohen, Columbia University.<
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  Chapter 7: Reverend Steven Paulikas; Monzer Kahf, scholar of Islamic finance; Paul Courtright, professor of religion at Emory University; Susannah Heschel, professor of Jewish studies at Dartmouth College; Larry Kahaner; Umar Moghuls; Nicolas Rodriguez-Brizuela; Charles Boxenbaum.

  Chapter 8: Howard Daniel, Quoc Hoang Nguyen, Ronachai Krisadaolarn, Willie Villareal, Percival “Boyet” Manuel, Kavan Ratnatunga, Harvey Stack, Lawrence Stack. As well as Ravi Shankar Sharma, secretary of Numismatics Society of Calcutta; and H. S. Saggu, treasurer of the Numismatics Society of Calcutta; Morena Ramos, PNAS; Ed Nocom, PNAS; Mr. Thieu in Hanoi; D. Wayne Johnson; Wayne Homren, editor of the E-Sylum.

  I’m thankful for the contributions of these smart folks: Jon Anderson, Arjun Dev Arora, Sundeep Ahuja, John Baxter, Danielle Bernstein, Frank Bisignano, Vicki Black, Michael Bossidy, Josh Bower, Katie Clark, Bishawjit Das, Mike Derham, Mitul Desai, Jasmin Eichler, Corine Farhat, Hussein Fazal, David Gardner, Jono Gasparro, Sophie Geng, Henedina Somoza Gonzales, Adam Jackson, Moushumi Khan, Sarah Labowitz, Dennis Lockhart, Frederick Mbari, Lisa Miller, Seema Mody, Maroof Mohsin, Lamiya Morshed, Lakshay Nirula, Jared O’Connell, Anne Phyfe Palmer, Chirayu Patel, Sufi Mostafizur Rahman, Benjamin Richter, Jafar Rizvi, Sorin Roibu, Patrick Scholtes, Geoff Schwarten, Manuel Sevillano, Katherine Snedeker, Vivek Sodera, Adam Starr, Lev Sviridov, Paul Volcker, Michael Welch, David Wertime, Brian Westover, John Williams, Andreas Xenachis, Andrew Young, Muhammad Yunus, and everyone who provided testimonials for the book and helped with obtaining pictures. I am especially thankful for Archduke Julian Boxenbaum, who was always available to discuss the book and how to improve it. Thank you to Ariana Pieper, dear friend and editor, who has helped me write for years; you read early drafts, researched diligently, and provided invaluable edits. I appreciate your brilliance and support.