1903 G$1 LA Purchase, McKinley MS64 认证号21270676, PCGS号7444

The centennial of the Louisiana Purchase of 1903 was the premise for the minting of two commemorative gold dollars. The Jefferson Gold Dollar, depicted below,and the McKinley Gold Dollar were minted in 1902 and 1903 for the centennial in St. Louis in 1904. The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, better known as the St. Louis World Fair was a year late as the centennial year is 1903, the completion of the Louisiana Purchase from Napoleon of France. Jefferson is depicted on the obverse of the coin, and on the reverse is an olive branch with centennial years 1803-1903. The denomination of one dollar and the inscription "Louisiana Purchase Exposition--St. Louis" completes the design. This is the first gold dollar minted since the discontinuation of the denomination in 1889. The coin, sold at the fair for $3.00 each, met with little enthusiasm. Over 100,000 of the coins minted were returned to Philadelphia for melting. Brilliant proofs were minted (100 coins) signed by the suprintendent and chief coiner of the mint. Proofs today are very rare and should not be confused with proof-like coins of business strikes. The issue has been extensively conterfieted and all specimens should authenicated by a third party grading service. The U. S. Postal Service in 1904 issued commemorative stamps in one, two, three, five, and ten-cent denominations for the exposition. The one and two cent stamps are common issues whereas the three, five, and ten cent are relatively scarce and pricey

Ron Guth

The Louisiana Purchase Gold Dollars were intended to be a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase.  The authorizing legislation of June 28, 1902 gave the Secretary of the Treasury broad discretion in selecting the designs for the coin.  Thomas Jefferson was chosen as one subject because he was President when the Louisiana Purchase was concluded.  William McKinley was chosen for a second subject in part because of agitation by numismatist Farran Zerbe for a second variety, in part because the Louisiana Expo was authorized under McKinley's tenure, and in part because McKinley had been assassinated in 1901. 

The 1903 LA Purchase/McKinley Gold Dollar has the distinction of being the second U.S. coin to bear the portrait of a "real" American (the first was the 1900 Lafayette Dollar, with conjoined busts of George Washingtonand the Marquis de Lafayette), and the first coin to bear the portrait of a martyred President (Lincoln didn't make it onto a coin until 1909).

Gem examples of this date are plentiful, as evidenced by the PCGS Population Report and the PCGS CoinFacts Condition Census (CC).  The two best examples known of this type are a pair of PCGS MS68s, one of which was certified in 1999, and the other of which is a recent entry into the census.  Finding a nice example of this design type should be a relatively easy task.