The 1905 Lewis & Clark gold commemorative dollar coin was issued to honor the centennial of the expedition charted by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark across the western territory acquired by the United States in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Congress had approved some 250,000 examples of the 1904 and 1905 Lewis & Clark gold dollar coins, though only a fraction of these were sold.

Charles E. Barber designed the Lewis & Clark dollar, showing each explorer on either side of the coin. Many of these pieces ended up in circulation, but the vast majority are known in uncirculated grades. The bulk of them are encountered in the marketplace ranging from about MS62-65, with MS66 specimens proving scarce and those grading MS67 or higher quite rare.