DECEMBER 5
1814•Anthony C. Paquet Is Born
2023•2023 Uncirculated Set
Anthony C. Paquet Is Born — The Engraver Behind the Famous 1861 Paquet Reverse Double Eagle
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On December 5, 1814, Anthony C. Paquet was born in Hamburg, Germany. Decades later, after immigrating to the United States and joining the Philadelphia Mint as an assistant engraver, Paquet would create one of the most famous—and most elusive—design variations in nineteenth-century American gold coinage: the 1861 Paquet Reverse double eagle.
Paquet never achieved the household-name status of James B. Longacre, Christian Gobrecht, George T. Morgan, or Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Yet his work appears throughout an extraordinary range of medals, patterns, and experimental Mint designs. His most celebrated contribution began as an attempt to improve the reverse of the $20 Liberty Head gold piece. The redesign was approved for production, then abruptly canceled after officials feared its narrow rim would not protect the design adequately.
Philadelphia examples were largely destroyed. San Francisco, however, had already struck and released thousands before the cancellation order arrived. The resulting 1861-S Paquet Reverse double eagle became one of the great rarities of the Liberty Head series, while two surviving Philadelphia examples rank among the most legendary regular-issue U.S. gold coins.
Born in Hamburg
Anthony C. Paquet was born in Hamburg, Germany, on December 5, 1814.
Specialist numismatic biographies identify him as the probable son of bronze worker Toussaint François Paquet.
That family background would have placed the young Paquet close to the world of metalworking and artistic craftsmanship.
Germany in the early nineteenth century possessed strong traditions in engraving, medal making, die sinking, and decorative metal arts.
Those skills would eventually carry Paquet into the heart of American coin production.
Paquet arrived in Philadelphia in 1848.
He entered the United States at a moment of extraordinary change.
The California Gold Rush was about to transform the nation's supply of precious metal.
The U.S. Mint would soon face unprecedented demands for gold coinage.
New branch mints, new denominations, and new designs would follow.
For an engraver and die sinker, the timing could hardly have been more consequential.
An Engraver in New York
During the 1850s, Paquet established himself professionally as an engraver.
Numismatic research places him in New York during part of this period, where he operated an engraving business and produced medallic work.
Attributions can be difficult because many pieces associated with Paquet were unsigned.
One notable signed work is connected with the political career of explorer and presidential candidate John C. Frémont.
By early 1857, Paquet was doing contract work for the Philadelphia Mint.
He subsequently became an assistant engraver.
The position placed him under Chief Engraver James Barton Longacre, one of the most prolific designers in U.S. Mint history.
Longacre had created the Indian Head cent and the Liberty Head double eagle, among other designs.
Paquet entered an institution that was struggling to keep pace with rapidly expanding coinage demands.
The discovery of gold in California had transformed American coinage.
Congress authorized the $20 double eagle in 1849 specifically to convert large quantities of gold into a convenient monetary form.
A single double eagle represented twenty dollars—an enormous amount of purchasing power for an ordinary American.
For banks, merchants, international trade, and bullion depositors, however, the large denomination was extremely useful.
James B. Longacre designed the Liberty Head double eagle.
Regular production began in 1850.
The obverse depicts Liberty facing left, wearing a coronet inscribed “LIBERTY.”
The reverse features a heraldic eagle with shield, rays, stars, and the denomination.
As western gold production expanded, double eagles became one of the most important forms in which American gold entered commerce.
In 1860, Paquet prepared a modified reverse for the double eagle.
He retained the basic elements of Longacre's design but changed its visual character.
The most obvious difference was the lettering.
Paquet's letters were taller, narrower, and more elegant than those on the standard reverse.
He also modified the shield border and repositioned elements of the surrounding design.
Collectors can recognize the Paquet Reverse quickly once they know what to look for.
The lettering in “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA” is distinctively tall and slender.
The border is unusually narrow.
The stars and rays differ in their placement from Longacre's regular reverse.
The overall effect is cleaner and more open.
Paquet had not reinvented the double eagle. He had refined it.
The Narrow Rim Problem
Unfortunately, the refinement created a practical concern.
The Paquet reverse used a very narrow border.
Mint officials feared that this would leave the design insufficiently protected from wear and might cause other production or durability problems.
By early 1861, the decision was made to abandon the new reverse and return to the established design.
That decision transformed an intended production modification into a numismatic rarity.
Reverse dies had already been distributed to branch mints.
Once officials decided to cancel the design, instructions had to travel from Philadelphia to the other facilities.
Communication in 1861 was not instantaneous.
That delay became crucial.
New Orleans received the stop order before it had produced Paquet Reverse double eagles for circulation.
San Francisco did not.
The San Francisco Mint began producing 1861-S double eagles with Paquet's reverse before the cancellation order reached California.
By the time officials there learned that the design had been withdrawn, thousands had already been struck.
Those coins entered commerce.
The exact production quantity has been debated and reconstructed from Mint records, but the issue was small compared with ordinary double-eagle output.
Today the surviving 1861-S Paquet Reverse is scarce in every grade and especially difficult in high condition.
The 1861-S Paquet Reverse is a perfect example of how nineteenth-century communications could create collectible varieties.
Today a Mint headquarters decision can reach production facilities almost instantly.
In 1861, instructions had to travel across a continent whose communications network was still developing.
The transcontinental telegraph would not be completed until later that year.
San Francisco's distance from Philadelphia allowed Paquet's canceled design to survive in meaningful numbers.
Philadelphia also struck 1861 double eagles using Paquet's reverse.
But once the design was rejected, nearly all of those pieces were melted.
Only two Philadelphia examples are known today.
That survival rate places the 1861 Paquet Reverse double eagle among the most celebrated rarities in all of U.S. gold coinage.
Its rarity is not the result of ordinary circulation loss. It is the consequence of an aborted design change.
Two Survivors
The two known Philadelphia pieces have extraordinary pedigrees and have commanded enormous attention whenever they have appeared publicly.
They represent the surviving evidence of a reverse that was intended to become normal production but was withdrawn almost immediately.
Unlike a fantasy coin created solely for collectors, the Paquet Reverse emerged directly from the Mint's attempt to improve a circulating denomination.
That distinction gives it unusual historical importance.
Collectors sometimes debate terminology surrounding extraordinary Mint products.
The Paquet Reverse double eagle occupies an especially interesting position because the design was prepared for regular coinage and actually entered production.
The San Francisco coins unquestionably circulated.
The Philadelphia pieces were struck during the same official production effort before the reverse was canceled.
That is why specialists often treat the issue differently from experimental patterns that were never intended for ordinary circulation.
The famous reverse can overshadow the rest of Paquet's career.
He worked on patterns, medals, and other engraving projects.
Specialists attribute a number of experimental designs and punches to him, although the lack of signatures makes some attributions less certain than others.
Pattern coinage was an important part of nineteenth-century Mint work because it allowed engravers and officials to test designs, metals, denominations, and production concepts.
One particularly fascinating piece associated with Paquet is the copper double eagle pattern cataloged as Judd-257.
Patterns like this provide a window into the Mint's design process.
They reveal ideas that never became ordinary circulating coins and preserve the work of engravers whose names otherwise might have disappeared from public memory.
For Paquet, experimental coinage became an important part of his numismatic legacy.
Paquet is also associated with distinctive letter punches used on various Mint projects.
Lettering can function almost like handwriting in die engraving.
The shapes, proportions, and spacing of letters can help specialists identify the work of particular engravers or connect apparently unrelated dies.
Paquet's tall, narrow lettering is precisely what makes his double-eagle reverse so immediately recognizable.
Medallic Art
Nineteenth-century Mint engravers did far more than create circulating coins.
They produced medals commemorating military achievements, political figures, national events, institutions, and government service.
Medal work gave engravers more room than a small coin to develop portraits and complex scenes.
Paquet's medallic output became a significant part of his professional career both inside and outside the Mint.
Paquet is associated with the design of the original U.S. Army Medal of Honor.
Specialist biographies note that the pattern bears his script signature.
The Medal of Honor was established during the Civil War as the nation's highest military decoration for valor.
This connection means Paquet's artistic legacy extends far beyond numismatics.
Millions may never know his name, yet the visual tradition of America's highest military honor includes his work.
The timing of the Paquet Reverse could hardly have been more dramatic.
The design was introduced at the beginning of 1861.
Within months, the United States would descend into Civil War.
Gold disappeared from ordinary circulation as citizens hoarded precious metal.
Double eagles increasingly functioned in banking, international payments, government finance, and western commerce rather than everyday transactions.
New Orleans was one of the branch mints that received Paquet reverse dies.
But Louisiana seceded from the Union in January 1861.
The New Orleans Mint soon passed through state and Confederate control.
The fact that Paquet's redesign was being distributed just as the federal minting system itself was being fractured by secession adds another historical layer to the issue.
San Francisco remained firmly in Union hands.
California gold was enormously important to the northern economy.
The San Francisco Mint continued turning western bullion into federal gold coins throughout the war.
The 1861-S Paquet Reverse double eagle therefore emerged from a facility whose output helped sustain national commerce during one of the country's greatest crises.
Double eagles were working money.
Many were shipped overseas, held in bank reserves, transported in bulk, or eventually melted and recoined.
The large, soft gold surfaces accumulated marks easily.
As a result, even surviving nineteenth-century double eagles can be difficult to find in pristine condition.
For an already scarce issue such as the 1861-S Paquet Reverse, high-grade examples are major rarities.
Shipwreck Gold and Double Eagles
The history of double eagles is deeply connected with maritime transportation.
Large quantities of California gold traveled by ship, sometimes as bullion and sometimes as finished $20 pieces.
Famous wrecks such as the SS Central America have yielded remarkable caches of early double eagles.
The denomination was essentially a compact vehicle for moving substantial amounts of gold through nineteenth-century commerce.
Paquet's formal Mint career was relatively brief.
He served as an assistant engraver into the 1860s and continued producing engraving and medallic work afterward.
Unlike Longacre, Barber, or Morgan, he never became Chief Engraver.
That helps explain why his name is less familiar to casual collectors.
Yet one short-lived reverse ensured that it would never disappear from serious numismatic literature.
Coin histories often focus on the person whose name appears as the official designer.
Mint production was more collaborative.
Assistant engravers prepared dies, punches, patterns, hubs, lettering, medals, and modifications.
Some of their work became permanent. Some was rejected. Some survives only in experimental pieces.
Paquet demonstrates how an assistant engraver could leave an enormous numismatic footprint without ever holding the Mint's top artistic office.
The irony of the Paquet Reverse is irresistible.
Mint officials abandoned it because they believed it was technically inferior for sustained production.
That failure is precisely what made the surviving coins extraordinary.
Had the reverse worked perfectly and remained in use for years, collectors might regard it as merely another standard design phase.
Instead, cancellation froze it into a tiny and historically fascinating population.
The most useful diagnostic is the reverse lettering.
Paquet's “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA” is tall and narrow compared with the standard Longacre lettering.
The rim is noticeably narrower.
The shield border and placement of stars and rays also differ.
Because genuine examples are valuable, authentication should always be left to qualified specialists and major grading services rather than attempted from a single photograph.
A Major Liberty Head Double Eagle Rarity
The Liberty Head double eagle series spans from 1850 through 1907.
It includes Civil War issues, famous shipwreck coins, rare branch-mint dates, and major design changes.
Within that enormous series, the 1861 Paquet Reverse stands apart.
The Philadelphia issue is legendary because only two are known.
The San Francisco issue is obtainable only with substantial resources and remains a major prize for advanced collectors.
Anthony C. Paquet's importance cannot be measured simply by counting how many regular U.S. coins bear designs attributed to him.
His career illuminates the Mint's internal artistic culture.
He represents the immigrant craftsmen who brought European engraving traditions into American public art.
His patterns reveal experimentation.
His medals show the broader work of Mint engravers.
And his double-eagle reverse demonstrates how a seemingly modest technical redesign can become numismatic history.
Collectors often encounter Paquet's name backward.
They first learn about the “Paquet Reverse.”
Only later do they discover that Paquet was a real engraver with a career extending beyond one famous coin.
Remembering his December 5 birthday reverses that process.
It places the craftsman before the rarity.
The famous 1861 double eagle exists because an engraver born in Hamburg in 1814 eventually found his way to the Philadelphia Mint.
Anthony C. Paquet was born on December 5, 1814, far from the American mints where his name would eventually become famous.
He immigrated to the United States, built a career as an engraver, and joined the Philadelphia Mint during one of the most dynamic periods in American monetary history.
His attempt to refine the Liberty Head double eagle reverse in 1860 seemed, at first, like ordinary Mint design work.
Then the narrow border caused concern.
The reverse was canceled.
Philadelphia pieces were largely melted. San Francisco had already struck coins before the order arrived.
From that chain of events came one of America's great gold rarities.
Paquet's story is therefore more than a designer biography. It is a reminder that some of the most celebrated coins in numismatics were created not by grand commemorative plans, but by ordinary production decisions, technical problems, delayed communications, and chance survival.
More than two centuries after his birth, the words “Paquet Reverse” remain enough to command the attention of serious U.S. gold collectors everywhere.
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