Peace Dollars: why the open mouth?

Anyone know why her mouth is open? Is it like a sigh of relief?

 

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artistic license.

 

It makes her look hot. IMO she is the mast attractive Miss Liberty we've had. In 1921 rhe Wall Street Journal called it the "Harlot Dollar" in an article because her lips were parted. If you see a photograph of the model (designers wife) I'm not really sure he meant for her lips to be parted, but a lip facial feature of hers. Seriously though I think this is a beautiful reardless of lips.

 

She's getting ready to eat her lunch or something like that or she was going to speak and decided not to or has lock jaw
Jazzcoins Joe

 

Never heard the question asked before and honestly I never really noticed it (or at least didn't pay attention). So what if it's a little different, it would still be a gorgeous coin either way.

 

she looks kind of familliar though.

 

I was thinking the same thing.
I think the Peace dollar is done better though.

On the other hand, the Indian $10 is still a wonderful peace (my 2nd favorite )

 

I vote for the 'it makes her look hot' answer...without doubt the most attractive liberty on US coins.

 

The "Medal Collectors of America" had this to say on the subject:

Medals of Anthony De Francisci
Anthony DeFrancisci was born in Italy in 1887, coming to New York City as a young man. He studied at Cooper Union, the Art Students League and National Academy of Design. He served as studio assistant to James Earle Fraser, Philip Martiny, Hermon MacNeil, A. A. Weinman and later taught art at Columbia University and the Beaux-Arts Institute in New York City. He died in 1964. During a long career, DeFrancisci created many outstanding works of medallic art and monumental sculptures, including the 1920 Maine Statehood commemorative Half Dollar and the 1921 Peace dollar. The new Dollar was one of the last classic redesigns of the 1907-1921 era and was modeled by his wife Theresa Cafarelli DeFrancisci. This coin was criticized for low relief.

A Philadelphia newspaper quoted in Cornelius Vermeule’s indispensable Numismatic Art in America, (Belknap Press of Harvard University, 1971) carped, ``Liberty is growing younger… The young lady has lost her Greek profile. Hellenic beauty has been superseded by the newer `flapper’ type. A sculptor of genius would have put into that face some quality of divinity… the head is merely that of a fairly attractive girl of 17... whose immature chin and half-open mouth merely suggest the expression of her kind. If words were issuing from her lips they would hardly take the elegant languor of `Line’s bizzay!’ They would more probably be `Say, lissen!’’’

I don't know what "Line's Bizzay" and "Say, Lissen" refer to - they must have been slang or had some other meaning in 1921.

 

EDITED--Lets keep politics out of this....shall we.

 

Probably a reference to the young ladies who used to employed as telephone operators.

 

I have no idea what he means by 'immature chin' but needless to say I think he is dead wrong. I think the lady is the most elegant and attractive woman on US coins to date...I see nothing that he see's in the portrait save a very lovely lady, elegant, with fine, attractive features...unlike the dead eyed, manly looking, stone jaw of the Morgan Liberty....and dont get me started about the shocked looking, homely lady on the bust half. Artistically it is simply outstanding...and if they moaned about the lack of relief on these...what would they think now with the cheap super low relief tokens our coins have become...holding an old quarter up along side a new one...its just sad what coinage has come to.

 

:rolling: Belch :goofer:

Belch\ (b[e^]lch; 224), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Belched (b[e^]lcht); p. pr. & vb. n. Belching.] [OE. belken, AS. bealcan, akin to E. bellow. See Bellow, v. i.]

1. To eject or throw up from the stomach with violence; to eruct.

"I belched a hurricane of wind." --Swift.

2. To eject violently from within; to cast forth; to emit; to give vent to; to vent.

"Within the gates that now Stood open wide, belching outrageous flame." --Milton.

 

I agree with what davidh quoted. I don't completely hate the coin though. Actually I like it. I just think it, and its depiction of Liberty, are way overrated.

 

That was my thought. The Roaring Twenties were just getting started and women were shaking off the shackles of the Victorian Era. Perhap Liberty was personified by the new 'Flapper' of the day.

Or perhaps that is simply how the model held her mouth.

 

That makes sense.

 

Some of the younger guys here are probably wondering, "What's a telephone operator?"

 

Hair ball maybe?

 

Does that Native American have the Elvis sneer or did Elvis get it from her?

Bruce