Ronnie Lee Gardner Execution Commemorative Coin

fyi post:

An interesting coin-story that has been in recent media over a forthcoming execution in Utah. The condemned man also requested execution by firing squad.

Please let us keep this on the coin topic since capital punishment is a delicate subject to discuss.

UTAH Corrections creating commemorative coin for Ronnie Lee Gardner execution from Deseret News 4/27/2010

And, randomly picked off Google, a bloggers thoughts on this coin/topic.


Curious about who designs such a coin, the mintage, where it's minted, the specs, costs, etc. Can it really be a "coin" or is it a medal?

 

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I think this says it all "This guy has been sucking up tax payer money since he was a kid. He has been on death row 25 years. He has been a hardcore criminal for 90% of his life and has cost Utah millions of dollars. And now he is costing us more for a commemorative coin? This seems in poor taste to the tax payer and to justice."

the article you showed is almost 2 months old too, so you wonder what happened to it

 

Well, I'd like to see thoughts on the idea of the coin here, not capital punishment, not on the courts decisions, not about personal opinions about death sentences and not about criminals/justice in general. That's why I put that initial disclaimer into the first post. However, the execution is slated for midnight 6/18/2010. The age of the article is not that important, there are others you can cite that are newer I suppose if that's important. This is in the news of the moment because the date of the execution has arrived. It would certainly take some time to plan and 'execute' such a coin, which I haven't been able to find information about other than these media reports. I don't know whether the coin is currently being minted, finished being minted, when it will be presented to those involved, how many that will be or if the entire idea is to be completed in the future.

 

I wonder if the coins will come in "shotgun rolls." TC

 

Krispy, you beat me to it. I posted the same thread. So sorry. I hope one of the mods can get rid of it.

 

i think it should have a center hole, whatever it is.

 

LMAO.

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I think the idea of making and awarding themselves a commemorative coin / token is creepy, disgusting, and a waste of taxpayer dollars. Also kind of brings to mind all those Soviet generals who would wear chestfuls of medals, all self-awarded.

At the end of the day, the turn around time for these is rather quick, and the cost doesn't appear to be that high.

Here is an example of pricing: http://www.hoffmanmint.com/CustomTokenPriceList.pdf

 

Good un.

 

No worries, I believe they can combined them if they see fit.

 

so they are making a coin/medal to give to the people that have part in the execution?

it just sounds a little odd and the question i have is why?

 

It is a bit odd to hear of these 'awards' that corrections officials and officers receive for such duties. Those who partake in the execution are volunteers and are offered counciling immediately after the execution. Apparently, there is an older system of awarding 'pins' and/or 'ribbons' for various forms of participation in prison work and according to the link I provided, "The staff preferred something a little more modern than the ribbons," So it seems someone thought a coin would be an attractive incentive or replacement of the older symbol of this work.

To me, something that resembles a form of money, rewarded or received in connection with ending a life is a rather odd sentiment to select.

 

According to articles on the topic, they used to hand out commemorative pins but since no one ever wore the pins, they decided to issue commemorative coins instead...

 

Here is what I don't understand-
Why would a person want to remember killing another?

 

I concur... Or that which resembles a medal...

Of course, by all means the perpetrators of these crimes need to be punished severely and harshly...

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I guess the coin is something those people can whip out and brag about among their Jerry Springer kin?

 

It also makes me think of the Two-face supervillain character in Detective Comics (Batman), who carried a coin and would flip it to see if he would act good or bad.

 

Utah once issued it's own gold coins, some of them inscribed with the
"Deseret Alphabet", special characters in place of English.

 

Now that's a very interesting bit of trivia! Thanks. Will have to have a look for examples online to see this. Thanks.

Found an example right here Deseret Alphabet.com and on wiki amongst others.

 

Issuing a medal to commemorate the cold blooded killing of a human being?
Sorry but I find find this idea totally abhorrent. It's like Dr Mengele receiving the Nobel Prize for Medicine!

 

like someone else said, why get medal for something like this.

this is not coming from someone against the death penalty either, i am actually for it. but i don't think a ribbon or medal or whatever is a good way to remind or award someone of there work with this. we definitely shouldn't forget, but i think there are better ways to spend the money that it takes to make these medals.

maybe like a memorial for the victims that includes thanking the workers and volunteers...

 

Maybe they'll run a series of them; Firing Squad, Electric Chair, Seringes, or the best one, a Hangmans noose on the obverse, and put the lucky person recieving on the reverse. Damn right I'd buy em. The state governments would see these puppies selling like hotcakes, I bet that would speed up execution of all the waste of lives in the prison holes. I vote YES...