I had the idea to put together a new website honoring & promoting Matte Proof Lincolns about 6 weeks ago -- and since I already had an interest in colorfully toned coins -- and further, have always wondered if it's possible to actually rank coins based on visual appeal (and what that process might look like) -- I tried to marry these ideas into a new site. In any case, the dust has finally settled on that endeavor, and I would love to have some feedback: So please take a look and tell me what you think ... “100 Greatest (Most Beautiful) Matte Proof Lincolns -- Homage to Color and Visual Appeal” http://100greatestmatteprooflincolns.com For the purposes of this website, rankings were based on visual appeal (including interesting color) with some small influence of assigned grade/condition, but only as that secondary aspect adds to the overall appearance. Because of this some lower graded coins will be ranked higher than some higher graded coins. Please note that the rank shown is based on a consensus ranking from a number of top MPL owners and experts, who submitted votes over a two week period. Also a number of people provided their labor of love to this endeavor, of special recognition is Robec, who spent many hours toiling at image generation and providing input and feedback. Others that were instrumental in submitting votes and/or comments & feedback were: Brian Wagner of BW's Hall of Fame, Jonathan W. of the McCullugh Collection, Rich S. of Gobrecht's Raisinets, Matt C. of Matt's Mattes, Paul of PaulsPennies, Tom of The Tom Bender Registry Set, Robec of MPLs-Lincolns-of-Color, Kevin Flynn of the book Matte Proof Lincolns, Stewart Blay, Duane Blake, the owner of the O'Connor Matte Proof Lincoln Set, and the owner of The Withers Collection and many others. This site would not be possible if not for the contributions of photos of MPLs by their many owners and the passion they bring to this wonderful hobby. It should be noted that full Red (RD) Matte Proofs were at somewhat of a disadvantage in the ranking system utilized by this site since, for our purposes, eye-catching color carried a substantial influence in ranking a coins visual appeal. For this reason, pages were developed on this website to separate MPLs by color (BN, RB, & RD) so that MPLs in each color class had a chance to compete with other coins in their particular color category only. Another problem we had was many of the top Red (RD) MPLs had no high-quality, professional photographs available. However due to the emphasis of this website on "color", it's unclear how much of an impact that had on these listed rankings. In any case, we were disappointed that we could not acquire photographs of the few PR68 RD MPLs in existence and some of the top PR67s. So I am aware that the listing of RD MPL's is short and incomplete. We don't expect everyone to agree with the rank (that's the nature of a consensus), but certainly the conversation is a fun one. We do realize this is a controversial endeavor, and that opinions will vary widely, however keep in mind this is being done as an interesting visual-appeal case study of a short series of coins -- and we hope this helps initiate more conversation on how to judge and/or rank a coin's visual appeal ... and help to promote this very rare, beautiful, and interesting coin series. A number of VERY INTERESTING statistics fell out of this work, and they are outlined on the RANK BY DATE pages as well as on the STATISTICS page. Certainly there were a number of surprises! One of our biggest hopes was that the existence of this site might shake out more top colorful and eye-appealing MPLs from the general collecting community. We fully expect that there are probably many MPLs that are not on this site, that deserve to be. So if you have an MPL that you think is deserving of a top 100 ranking (or better a top 40 ranking) be sure to send us the relevant information and a link to an image through our contact form. However, please look at your coins objectively! We have found that ownership of a coin seems to cause some rank inflation. Most think coins that they own are better than everyone else's. Keep in mind that there are roughly 5,000 Matte Proof Lincolns in existance, and this website features only the top 100, or only the top 2% of the small field population. For those that want to submit MPLs for consideration, keep in mind that a beautiful, high-quality, and professional photograph goes a long way in presenting your MPL in the best light. More than 70% of all the MPL photographs on the website were shot though PCGS’s TrueView (out-of-the-slab) photographic service, which seems to present most coins at their best -- and levels the playing field (so to speak) when comparing one photograph to another since you remove the degree of freedom of differences in photographers, equipment, lighting, techniques, and style. We do realize that some cannot use that service since they might have an OGH they want to keep, or may feel uneasy about exposing their pricey MPLs to the elements, even for a short time. We certainly can work around these limiting factors. A number of other professional coin photographers, that do through-the-slab photography, are available to people with those concerns. The photographer for all coins displayed on the MPL site are listed, so you can get a view of the work of various top coin photographers. This website broke down the rankings into 3 categories: by OVERALL POSITION, by DATE, and by COLOR CLASS. Each of these breakdowns are linked through rows of navigation buttons at the top of the website. The OVERALL RANK buttons are named: #1-#20, #21-#40, … , #81-#100. The HM page is for coins that just missed making the top 100 and may serve as a temporary staging ground for new MPLs that we pickup through public submissions. Once enough new MPLs are picked up ... another round of voting may ensue to place these new MPLs in the top 100 (and knock currently ranked coins out). Please note that we may choose not to include some MPLs submitted if we feel they do not have a shot at a top 100 position -- so there will be some pre-screening of coins submitted. Also we also realize that as you drop down below rank #50 or so, the differences between coins tends to compress, -- and in general there is much less difference between a coin ranked #50 and #100 as there is at the top of the list (say between a coin ranked #1 and #49). So don’t get too upset if you think a lower ranked coin is too low. There is simply not that much difference between the lower ranked coins, and differences in opinion seems to widen as you drop down on the list. It might be better to think of these coins in terms of their page – that is, a Page 1 coin (top 20) vs. a Page 3 coin (#41-60) vs. a Page 5 coin (#81-100). Feel free to post your comments, questions, and suggestions to this thread.
I just did a quick scan of your site and I had to stop because I'm going to need to dedicate a few hours to it. Gorgeous! If you ever decided to print off a few posters of the pics, I'd jump at the chance to buy one! Very well done!
wow just stunning...thanks for the write up. BTW I am at your MPL (number 14) and think yours should be ranked number 1 (or at least in the top 5).. Some of the ones ranked in the 30s (like 31-32) should be further up on the ranking imho. *edit cant spell
