I have often wondered about the models for various coins. I was a little surprized about speculation with regard to the model for the Bust half dollars. As one contemporary put it, she was his "fat German mistress". http://www.bunkerhillrarecoin.com/?id=7 Is this right?
A contemporary critic did supposedly make such a statement but it may have just been a criticism on the design or possibly a personal attack on Reich. As far as I know, no one knows if Reich had a mistress, fat, German, or otherwise and no one knows for sure what or who was the actual model.
The model has a bohemian "cool" look, not the sort of woman I can imagine anywhere in modern society. Haight-Ashbury or Greenwich Village, NYC?
I believe it. I love collecting CBH, but I'll never understand how this country went from the Flowing Hair model--svelte, feminine, sexy--to an androgynous she-beast who looked like a member of the East German swim team, circa 1980. And why did she re-appear in 1878 with the Morgan Dollar?
Mint designers and administrators were part-time workers. The rest of the time they were involved in physical labor, farm work, and trying to hustle to make a couple bucks. Herman Melville, one of our greatest authors, as well as Hawthorne, were not highly regarded in the U.S. in their day. The point being, highly honored work these days was not so respected back then and less money spent in those efforts....
