Origins and Politics of the 1971 Eisenhower Dollar Design

I'm going to get to the Bicentennial coins in a follow up thread in few days but with regard to the NASA patch, the reverse is, of course, based on the Apollo II insignia and I believe that there was a tussle over both initially.

Michael Collins was the one who thought of the design in the general sense

http://genedorr.com/patches/Apollo/Ap11.html

 

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Not every day one has a first post on a worthy coin forum.

CEO of Brooklyn, nice summary of the early Ike designs!

The Ike Group is presently trying to make sense of the Ike doubled dies: those efforts are fully transparent on our web site and include some radical "new-think" such as a concept based on observations from Ikes and from Mint Ike Records that Roger Burdette found in his extensive search for Morgan and Peace Dollar records (there are precious few mint records from the Ike era as Mint Director Stella Hackel (a Vermonter I blush to admit) decided the most cost effective approach to all the Ike records was to destroy them: by and large the only records extent are those the Mint released before the Hackel era and those Roger fround mis-filed in mint records!)

This particular "new think" (whicht may add yet another variable to our understanding Ike DD's) is the Mint's use of "promotional hubbing" (retrograde hubbing) to create 1971 and 1972 master dies from working dies. If you think about it, there is no reason all hubbing had to be "down line" as the process would be the same in either direction. One advantage of retrograde hubbing is one could take a fresh working die from a group that really worked well and retrograde-hub a new master die from which to then propogate this sucessful working die.

Are we having fun or what! Rob Ezerman

 

This is a great thread. Finally got to read it tonight thanks to Moderndollarnut's post.

 

Thanks for the kind words. I originally had planned this as a series of serious worked on Ike Dollars but as it started to move forward, my personal life fell apart.

I hope maybe to one day get back to the research and to finish the series. As it is I think there are three articles in the archive.

Ruben

 

http://www.cointalk.com/forum/t51006/

 

Thanks for the post Ruben, it has helped me alot. Just started going through my Ikes and found 14 bicentennial (d MM i think) T1 and 2 1972-d FEV. Glad to see you posting again!

 

Wow...I can't believe I missed this thread.....Thanks for all the info Ruben.

 

Its a big board and things can fly by sometimes

 

Very Nice

All I can say is "Bravo" Great Thread!!

 

Suggest readers take the many assumptions and guesses presented in the article and links with substantial circumspection.

 

time will tell

stated above:

"As historically important these coins are, great art they are not.."

History will be the judge of this. Many of our most cherished designs were scorned in their day.

The Ike dollar is probably one of the most under-rated coin series today due to mutual scorn by collectors and dealers alike. This coin is just starting to be appreciated (literally).

 

I appreciate your opinion on this although I will say that the article does support my statement in detail.

Ruben

 

Ruben, I appreciate your post very much. I really respect your ideas and I never thought of the metal and machinery as inclusive to the final design as artistry. You made me think a bit.

I agree that the early Ikes, especially, when the machinery and steel dies were still being developed, were rough going. High quality strikes of this era have steep price tags these days due to their condition rarity.

But the Ike dollar was also struck in 40% silver for collectors. Based on the different striking qualities, luster, and quality control of this metal, would you then say that the silver Ikes have better artistic merit than the circulation strikes? That's an interesting thought. I never really thought of it that way before.

BTW, I totally agree with you on the Morgan dollar. A lot of things came together with this coin to make it a fantastic collectible today.

Thanks for you input.

Steve

 

Good stuff as usual Ruben , very well written and very imformative , worthy of a TOTW .
Rusty:bow::thumb:

 

Point some out please , with reasoning .

rzage

 

The comment seems clear enough. Forget about the copy-cat junk on-line and go do the research for yourself. Also, some of the articles are filled with statements about what someone thought or did with no basis in fact. Dramatization does not count.

 

Ruben, the more we can all light a fire under Ikes, the better I like it!

E/S's next edition (I think) will have Part 2 of my 3 part article on the high relief 71-72 Ikes, lots of brand new and very challenging stuff there in. Will be turning to more popular writing on Ikes to plant our flag in the numismatic sands as we get closer to looking for a publisher for my book on Ikes (or self putlish?) Rob

 

Great thread, Ruben. Today was the first time I've seen it. I don't know how I missed it earlier, but it seems that many of us did. The topic came up just as I was doing some research of my own on the Eisenhower dollar series. Recently I acquired 8 Ikes from a bank teller and started to look them up on the Ike Groups website. http://www.ikegroup.org/ This is probably the most extensive website dedicated to Ike Dollars that I've encountered. I am going to start a thread of my own about the Ikes I got but I want to get some photos first. Again, nice going on this Ike $ thread.

Bruce

 

It ain't clear to me, so like Ricky says to Lucy, 'splain....

 

WOw - I'm impressed that you read all that I wrote in such detail. It is very gratifying that you read it and that you intellectually and emotionally respond to the work. I bow to you.

I think where the problems of the artistry fall short was that the artist was restrained from bringing a design that represented his artistic vision. But in addition to that, it seems pretty clear that the artist purposely did a job below his ability because frankly, he was ticked off as the project moved on.

Ruben