Indian Head gold pieces was modified by Barber, was "worthy of J.J. Audubon". Dies for the half eagle were sent to the mints in Denver and San Francisco; both western mints reported difficulties in striking the new pieces. Landis wrote to his counterparts at the other mints, advising them that the planchets, or blanks, needed to be shaved very slightly to strike properly. The new coins proved to be thinner than earlier coins of their denomination, due to the field being raised above the design. This meant that automated sorting machines could not reliably sort them when mixed with earlier coins. The new gold
Larvell Blanks run game of his career against the Toronto Blue Jays. When starting third baseman Buddy Bell went down with a stretched ligament in his left knee on September 4, Blanks spent the rest of the season as his team's starting third baseman, batting .329 with six RBIs, however, committing three errors. In Spring training , Blanks beat out Duffy for the starting shortstop job. Shortly afterwards, Duffy was dealt to the Boston Red Sox. He hit pretty well, driving in ten runs in the month of April, but a throwing error against the California Angels on May 5 was his