1/10 Gram STATUE OF FREEDOM 24K Note, Bill Sleeve, Golden Life Card, "Mini-Bio"

Description

T
his 2021 "Statue of Freedom" 24 karat pure [.999 fine] Aurum Gold Note commemorates the "Statue of Freedom" located atop the cast-iron Capitol Dome in Washington, D.C. While designed by a white architect named Thomas Walter and constructed in a foundry owned by a white man, the "Statue of Freedom" manages nonetheless to coalesce the three principal figures that produced the new Nation of the United States: the African-American, the American Indian and the white woman. The "Freedom" designation of the female figure atop the Dome is an iteration of the Roman goddess "
Libertas
," which during the French Revolution of 1789 wore a cap, replaced in the "Statue of Freedom" with a helmet and eagle feathers. The result is, as one critic notes, "a confusing monument that many Americans misunderstood simply as an Indian Princess."
Freedom wears the helmet encircled with stars and topped with an eagle’s head and feathers [the Bald Eagle being the U.S. National Bird], the talons hanging at either side of her face. Her long, curly hair flows down her back. Her dress is secured with a brooch with the letters “US,” and she is draped with a fur-trimmed robe. Her right hand holds a sheathed sword, the left a laurel wreath of victory and the striped shield of the United States.
But as the story behind the "Statue of Freedom" reveals, the project's success relied first and foremost on the statue's enslaved laborers of the foundry's owner, Clark Mills. In 1840 Mills purchased a slave named Phillip Reid for ,200, and it was Mills who learned foundry techniques sufficiently to cast the first Bronze statue in America. The foundry's owner, Mills, in 1840 had won a competition to cast an equestrian statue of President Andrew Jackson; and that success led to his selection to cast the "Statue of Freedom" to adorn the Capitol Building. Construction began in 1860 at the height of the slavery controversary that would plunge the nation into a Civil War. Reid lived long enough to become a free man on the signing of the Compensated Emancipation Act signed by Abraham Lincoln on April 16, 1862. This "Statue of Freedom" Aurum Gold Note was produced by Valaurum, Inc., of Portland, Oregon, in a process whereby vaporized gold is sprayed in a vacuum chamber onto layers of polyester substrate, creating a durable but beautiful work of gold art. Valaurum, Inc., also mints the Goldback Notes that are Voluntary Legal Currency among agreeing buyers and sellers in Utah, Nevada and New Hampshire, with Wyoming next in line to adopt the Goldback. Foreign Nations [Cook Islands, Ghana, Tanzania, Solomon Islands, etc.] are also adopting Goldbacks in the form of their national currency. Various security measures to prevent counterfeiting are a vital aspect of  these Aurum Notes, including unique I.D. Serial Numbers. The "Statue of Freedom" Aurum Gold Note is attached to the inside of a Golden Life Card with a "mini-bio" explaining what the Note means [see photo]. A colorfully designed envelope is also included for storing or gifting the Note.