50 Nevada Goldback

Stand Fast in Liberty

Libertas · Liberty

Libertas, or Liberty, the capstone Virtue design of each U.S.-based Goldback series, makes her second appearance here under a starry Nevada night sky. In the peaks of the Sierra Nevada, she is depicted as the biblical Eve, mother of the human race, patterned in part after a statue of Aphrodite from Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. The artist champions her as a symbol of a free woman who exercised her agency and power of choice to bring about the human race. In her left hand she holds high a pomegranate fruit, symbolizing all humankind, and in her right hand she holds a vertical rod, a symbol of royalty that also nods to the vertical mining technique that helped Nevada become an outstanding precious-metals producer.

She stands on a stone pedestal bearing a seashell, often found in depictions of Aphrodite, with a basket of pomegranates at her feet. Next to her is a biblical depiction of a rock altar with a fire burning on it, pointing toward a common practice of demonstrating thanks to the Divine for the blessings of freedom. To Liberty’s right is a small pillar balancing a world globe, with which Liberty champions her cause to the world. Nevada’s Desert Bighorn Sheep appear both behind and before her as symbols of steadfastness and mobility in the freedom of Nevada’s highest mountain places. Also present is the Bristlecone Pine, one of the longest-living trees on Earth, symbolizing the eternal nature of Liberty as a crowning Virtue.