1908 No Motto

The 1908 No Motto Indian Head Eagle stands as a direct artifact of the most public dispute over American coinage in the early twentieth century. Augustus Saint-Gaudens, working with President Theodore Roosevelt's blessing, deliberately struck IN GOD WE TRUST from the new eagle's reverse, viewing the motto as inappropriate ornament for circulating money. The omission triggered immediate backlash in the press and pulpits, and Congress responded with the Act of May 18, 1908, which mandated the motto's restoration to all gold and silver coinage. Only roughly 33,500 of these No Motto pieces were struck at Philadelphia between January and April 1908 before the law forced the design change.

Authentication centers on the absence of the motto banner above the eagle on the reverse, the clean field where Charles Barber would later place the inscription on With Motto strikings. Saint-Gaudens's standing eagle holds bundled arrows and an olive branch, and his obverse Liberty wears the war bonnet drawn from a Roman model. The starred edge carries 46 raised stars, matching the union as it stood between 1907 and 1911. Survival skews toward circulated and lower Mint State grades, with examples readily located through MS-63. PCGS and NGC populations thin notably at MS-64 and become genuinely rare above that threshold, with only a small handful certified at the Superb Gem level.

Within any sub-type approach to the series, the 1908 No Motto holds structural weight as one of only two No Motto issues from the Philadelphia mint, alongside the 1907 No Periods. Its 33,500 mintage runs roughly seven times scarcer than that earlier predecessor and far below the 1908-D No Motto from Denver. Stack's Bowers Galleries handled the public benchmark in August 2013, when a PCGS MS-67+ realized $105,750, a figure that still defines the upper market for certified Philadelphia examples. Mid-grade Mint State pieces trade actively in five-figure territory and remain the practical entry point for set builders. For broader context, see the Indian Head Eagle series history.