I had to get some postage stamps today and picked up a flat of them Jazz stamps. Pretty cool, the USPS also issued some Latin musician stamps as well but my local was sold out. The last jazz coin the US Mint made was Duke Ellington in 2009, has anyone heard that the US Mint is gonna put out anymore? IMO the US Mint could do a whole series on American born musicians and sell a ton!! Just my opinion tho', what do you think? Anyone?
IMO, the BEP has ruined the stamp collecting hobby by issuing stamps for no reason other than to be collected. It used to be that the definitives ran for many years before being updated and the commeratives were limited to something like six per year. Now, there are issuing about 50 different designs a year and I doubt that less than 10% of those printed are actually used. They are printing stamps for profit and no other reason.
So true but the US Mint has been known to make coins purely for profit as well. That said, I am surprised that there aren't more collectors on this forum chiming in about this, I do not collect stamps but who knows, these jazz stamps are pretty cool. I'm not talking only about jazz, heck we have tons of rock bands, musicians, guitarists, blues and even country music greats that can be honored and celebrated on coins. Here's two of them, and I hope Gibson is listening b/c I'm ready to buy if the coin is silver and at least 40%! We just lost Les Paul and a few years before that Chet Atkins! If I had the money I would do it myself, just contract the job out to someone! Oh and please, I know about the krap on ebay, I am talking about quality here and I hope Daniel Carr is listening. The only nice looking silver coin I've come across on ebay was the Grateful Dead silver round or the John Lennon, why has the US Mint only made two musician coins that I know about, Duke quarter and the Louis Armstrong gold piece? I'm just sayin'!! :thumb:
True, but the mint doesn't get to make those decisions. Every single new coin design has to be debated and passed as a law by Congress, a pracess that can take years. There is also a law on the book providing for no more than two commemorative coin programs per year and all the slots are pretty well filled up through 2015 I don't believe the USPS has these restriction to the number and subjects for the designs they produce. And you can add another musician to your list, Stephen Foster on the 1936 Cincinnati half dollar.
I fully understand your desire, but it could so quickly get out of hand, like the stamps have. Your desire is to see a musicians series, someone else might want a NASCAR drivers series; another, a series of aviation and aerospace pioneers; another, baseball or football "stars" series; etc. The BEP has put out series honoring cats, dogs, classic cars, Disney characters, artwork, flags, etc., etc., etc. Imagine if the mint did the same. Up until 1972 or so, a full year set of stamps can be had for less than $10; now a year set will go for about $40-50. This isn't a great amount but imagine the cost of 25-30 coins every year, in circulation strikes, SMS and proof sets (stamps are either used or unused).
Yeah but there's one thing about music that none of the other things you mentioned can ever come close to and that would be that music is a universal language. Doesn't really matter tho cause after I posted this thread I realized I had brought it up before. My only hope is that someone with a juice card like Ron Paul reads this and thinks of an idea on their own and presents it to the powers that be. Just a thought. Absolutely, how could I forget that guy?
By and large I do not like such "theme" series. But the Xth anniversary of a musician's or composer's birth/death could indeed be a worthy occasion. Another option would be to collect non-US coins with jazz themes. France even picked a trumpet player for its 2003 Louisiana Purchase (errm, Sale) coin. http://www.ma-shops.de/poetz/pic/1_5eurolouisianagesamt.jpg And last year a Belgian collector coin honored Django Reinhardt with a collector coin. http://www.honscha.de/bilder/10b102.jpg If it was not colored, I would have bought that one ... Christian
