USA BICENTENNIAL COINS The Bicentennial coins of 1976 are connected in three ways: 1. The mint announced in October 1973 it was holding an open contest for the selection of suitable designs for the special Bicentennial reverses of the quarter, half dollar and dollar coins. $5,000 would be awarded to each winner. A. Jack L. Ahr's design of a colonial drummer boy facing left and a victory torch encircled by 13 stars positioned at the upper left was selected for the quarter. B. Seth G. Huntington's design featuring Independence Hall in Philadelphia won out over all the competition for the half dollar. C. Dennis R. Williams won the Dollar contest with his artistic rendition of the Liberty Bell being superimposed over a full moon. 2. There are no quarter, half dollar or dollar coins dated 1975. All quarters, halves and dollars were dated 1776 - 1976 even though many were struck in 1975. 1975 mint and proof sets included a 1976 quarter, half dollar and dollar. quarter image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:1976_Bicentennial_Quarter_Rev.png half dollar image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Kennedy200coinback.jpg dollar image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:IkeBicentBack.jpg 3. All San Francisco mintage figures for silver clad bicentennial coins are approximate because many (some sources say several millions) were melted in 1982. This includes uncirculated and proof coins. Now for the differences: There were no 1976 quarters struck at Denver. Philadelphia minted proof silver clad coins only in the dollar denomination and only in variety 2. There are (at this time) no mintage figures. NOTE: Some sources say there were four copper-nickel clad quarters, four copper-nickel clad half dollars and four copper-nickel clad dollars struck by the Philadelphia mint without a mint mark. Clinker
I remember all this just to well. Back then myself and several others went nuts stockpiling as many of those quarters as possible. Just recently at coin shows we asked the value of them all. We enede up taking to a bank and just deposited them. Sure wish I had invested in Buggy Whips instead.
Another related bit of info.You can easily tell the 1975 Ike dollar from the 1976 by the inscription fonts,but a lot of albums don't even have seperate holes for type I & II.
To Just Carl Good to hear from you.... Yea, it looks like the designers were the only ones to profit from these so far! Clinker
Clinker: Yup, the designers made a few bucks, but they did better than the designers of the states' quarters, who don't even get their initials on on the designs! Now, the engraver (at the mint) gets to put his/her initianls on the coin, and they are copying someone else's design. It doesn't seem fair.
They no longer have to. In the old days they hired people to do that work. Now they have a basement full of designers chained to the walls and if they want to have the piped in Christmas Music tuned off, they have to design for free.
Beats the heck out of me. I think that it is a stupid policy. (Sorry, Roy, if this is considered too political.) No more comments on this subject, so this won't get closed.
To All Many Commerative halves and dollars artwork were once another artist's work as a monument or some other local art piece and adapted by a mint engraver to fit the coin. Clinker
I agree, but in this instance, the designs were deliberately designed with the intention of designing/creating a US coin specifically for that design (ie States quarters). Didn't Charles Barber (Nickel, dime, quarter and half dollar), Fraser (Buffalo nickel) Schlag (Jefferson Nickel), MacNeil (Standing Liberty quarter), Flanagan (Washington quarter), Weinman (Merc dime, Walking Liberty half) to name but a few, all get their initials on their coin designs? Sorry, but these designers got ripped off.
There is one small difference with the SQ's - they really aren't designed by people outside the mint. The only thing that the states can submit to the mint for their coins are written descriptions of the design. There is no coin, there is no model, there is no physical tangible item - there is only a written description. Now, I'm not saying that I disagree with you. But I am saying that is how mint justifies it, and from a purely technical point of view they are correct. It is a mint employee or employees that designs the actual coin which is based on a written description submitted by the various states.
GDJMSP: Huh? If they only submit descriptions, then how does Coin World publish the various different designs that are under consideration for each state? I have never heard that only descriptions are submitted. This is interesting, and that would be a different situation. Clinker, I wasn't disagreeing with you, just expanding on the previous comment. :thumb:
Easy, because Coin World uses pics of the designs that the states themselves used to have their citizens select their choice. These artist from outside the mint produce drawings of the designs and submit them to the states. The states publish pictures of the designs in local papers, on state web sites and let the citizens of the state choose their favorite from among them. So yes, the artists do make designs. But the rules for submission say that only a written description of the design can be submitted to the mint. The mint then has their own artists and engravers create a design for the coin based upon how they interpret that written description. Then other mint employees critique the design and change it yet again, often several times, to make sure that the coin will stike up well, wear well and will not wear out the coin dies too quickly. From the mint's web site - "Public Law 105-124, signed by President Clinton at the end of 1997, authorizes the Mint to honor the 50 states in the order they entered the Union or ratified the Constitution by producing five quarters each year from 1999 through 2008 with new reverse designs. The design process for each quarter is determined within each state by the Governor before design concepts are sent to the Mint, and then returned to the states for their final selection. Approval of the final design rests with the Treasury Secretary."
GDJMSP: Thanks for the the Public Law quote. Of course, this spells out why the designer's initials aren't on the quarters, but they should be! Clinker
