This photo shows the plaster casts that the U.S. Mint prepared so that people can get up close and personal with the forthcoming Ultra-High Relief Saint-Gaudens Double Eagles. These plaster casts were in an open case, along with the sign that encourages everyone to rub their hands over the sexy contours of Lady Liberty's Ultra-High Relief features, and if people closed their eyes and dreamt a little bit about actually owning the coin these plasters represent, well who can blame them? Most of us probably can't really afford to buy one (but that probably won't stop us!)
The text on the display reads:
To the left is a pencil sketch of an early design idea by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. To the right is the final plaster of the sculpture that was used in 1907 for test specimens and is now being used by the United States Mint in the creation of the 2009 coin.
Through 21st century technology, original Saint-Gaudens' coin plasters were digitally mapped. Using the digital design and die-making process, the ultra-high relief sculpture was updated to reflect the year 2009, an additional four stars to represent the current 50 states, and the inscription "In God We Trust," which was not on the 1907 version. Additionally, a small border was added for a more consistent edge.
Along the bottom it says, "Please touch these reproductions to feel the full effect of the ultra-high relief coin design."
Oh boy, I can already see it now. No matter how hard the Mint artists and technicians work to get this new coin as true and faithful to the original as possible, there will probably be some nit-picker who will declaim, "But the coin's not like the original! It has an extra bit of border!" Maybe the Mint shouldn't have told us this. ;) Maybe nobody would have noticed. After all, it's not like we all have original Ultra-High Relief Saints lying around to compare the new coin to.