New Dansco Album

Does anyone else read the "letters to the editor" in Coin World? You might find the letter "Album bias" interesting. Having never seen the album, I can only assume that the author's facts are correct. Does anyone else have any comments?

 

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Are you talking about the Presidential dollar coin album? If so I concur that there is a great deal of bias among the description of recent presidents (especially of George W. Bush.). I also noted a lot of the descriptions saw fit to mention historical events that happened during the terms of some presidents that the presidents really had nothing to do with, other than the fact they happened to be president at the time. Whether you agree with the characterisations of the presidents is a subject for the Politics forum... but I find it at least somewhat annoying that they're trying to politisize a coin album that shouldn't have mroe than the descriptions of the coins themselves, rather than trying to make political commentary about the presidents depicted on them.

Some examples:

On Clinton: "...He departed the office of the president with some of the highest historical approval ratings since polling began." (However they make no mention of the fact that Carter ended his presidency with the lowest, around 13%, even lower than Nixon had during the Watergate scandal. I also notice they fail to mention the Lewinsky scandal, which lead to Clinton being only the second president in history to be impeached, a fairly historically significant event. To be fair though they failed to mention Andrew Johnson's impeachment too, so at least they're somewhat consistent. Oddly though they decided to mention that the Whig party attempted, but failed, to impeach John Tyler, but made no mention of the two presidents that actually were impeached (though neither of them were convicted and removed), go figure. An anti-Whig bias maybe, lol?)

On Reagan: "...Also, seven astronauts lose their lives on the space shuttle Challenger on January 28, 1986." (So? What does that have to do with Reagan, other than he happened to be president at the time? Also, shouldn't that sentence be in past tense? I note they also mention the moon landing for Nixon, also something that had nothing to do with the president other than him being in office at the time, and the mention the Soviet Union breakup under George H. W. Bush, ditto.)

On George W. Bush: "...He has received mucg disapproval and criticism for his domestic and foreign policies, even from his past allies." (So have many other presidents, but they never mentioned that with any others.) "...and his lack of immediate reaction to Hurricane Katrina..." (no mention of a similar lack of reaction to the floods in 1927 that Coolige was greatly critisized for.) "His approval ratings at an all time low..." (again, not lower than Carter's!) "...voters gave control of the House to Democrats in November of 2006." (Many presidents have seen their party lose control of the House and/or Senate, but Bush is the only president they saw fit to mention this fact about.)

I could go on, it's very clear that they're very selective about praise and criticism for other presidents rather than just trying to give a dispassionate observation about what the presidents are historically well known for. Again, they also have a bad habit about mentioning historical events the presidents had nothing to do with, other than being in office at the time. There's even quite a few gramattical errors on top of that...

Well you can always just ignore the commentary, or remove the comment pages and just leave the coin holders in if it bothers you I suppose. It's otherwise an excellent album IMO. Even with the bias it still gives you a general picture of the presidents to get an idea of the era they lived in and a few minor details about them. I just wish they aimed to be a bit more neutral in their descriptions and leave out irrelevant facts to leave more room for more relevant ones.

 

When I first heard about this I couldn't believe it either. Why would a company alienate a sizable portion of their prospective clients? Makes no sense to me, no matter who's liberal and/or conservative.

 

Thanks for bringing that to my attention. I have a Dansco Presidential Album on backorder. I am now changing the order to get the Intercept Shield Album. Don't need to bring any political bias (either conservative or liberal) into my coin albums. I believe I will just order intercept shield albums from now on.

 

What, more whining about coin albums?

 

I've got a better, less expensive idea - IF you collect the DeadPrez series, just use 2x2s and 20-coin notebook pages.

My own take is that at my age there's a substantial possibility I won't live to finish a DeadPrez set anyhow, and I don't collect other US coins, so why bother starting it?

 

Coin albums are not a political platform. I too will be switching from Dansco to Intercept. I hope Dansco is reading this.

 

I thought the Presidential program was only scheduled through 2016 with Ford. Did Dansco already add holes for Bush, Carter, Clinton?

 

I stoped using albums altogher... I prefer boxes of 2x2s or Binders with pages of 2x2s...

 

I won't ever buy a Dansco album, this isn't what coin collecting is suppose to be all about. Many coins today also have interesting histories and so you would hope they could find good in this hobby, instead they do this. I don't think their albums are good for coin collecting anyways, they have scratched more valuable coins that we will ever know.

 

They scratch coins because you don't press them in far enough. I like my dansco albums for the most part. The down side is , Dansco leaves out some coins that need to be in their albums.

 

A lot of the Coin Veterans on here say that by pressing them in you can scratch or mar them...

 

Just read it..Very interesting...The problem is, dansco doesn't listen.

 

Welcome to the Media!!!!

I agrree, not just on Danscos, but other brands too.... I have some that there is no way you can get the coin in without beating them in...

 

There is no place in my coin album for political discourse. Coins are where I go to relax, the only thing the bios should say is born date - died date, presidential dates, and something good that happened during their presidency. Because you can surely find something good to say about all the presidents except for maybe William Henry Harrison.

 

On the chance there may be more, they do finish off the last page with holes for Carter, Reagan, Bush Sr., Clinton, and Bush Jr., with two more unlabeled holes for potentially two more presidents. They aslo include mini-bios of presidents they may or may not get a coin from this program up to and including Bush Jr. (At the time the album was printed Ford was still alive and it was only certain to go up to Nixon.)

The program will run to at least 2016... as of today they know it will at least honor every president up to and including Ford. For Reagan, depends how you interpret the law; some say that if it gets to Carter and he's still alive (or has been dead less than 2 years) the program just ends there so as not to honor Reagan out of order, that a non-qualified president can't be skipped to honor the next president even if he qualifies; others interpret the law as saying that Carter could be skipped so as to honor Reagan who would qualify at the time (US Today reported the first interpretation as being that of a representative of the Mint.) Of course if Carter dies between now and 2014 it's a moot point, and Carter and Reagan will get coins in 2016. Should both Carter die by 2014 and Bush Sr. die by 2015, Bush Sr. will get one in 2017 (quite likely, since both turn 83 this year; only 4 presidents have ever made it past age 90.) Highly unlikely Clinton, Bush Jr., or any future presidents will get a coin before the series ends. If the series ends with presidents still not honored, it would literally take another act of Congress to honor any of them later.

On a side note with the gold First Lady series, a first lady is honored the same time the president she was married to is honored, even if she happens to still be alive (though it is doubtful any of the living former first ladies whose husbands are no longer alive will still be alive by then anyway; all are over 80 and won't be honored for at least another 8 years; Lady Bird Johnson won't get a coin until 2015, Betty Ford 2016, and Nancy Reagan potentially also in 2016.)

Everry time I think about the presidential series, it reminds me of the Simpsons song, which I am now putting in my sig lol... though eventually it will no longer be true...

 

His Presidency was probably remarkably free of scandals.

 

Numismatic news saw fit not to print the letter, saying...."starting a bar room brawl in these pages is not the point. We are all here for the purpose of collecting all things numismatic."
Which is exactly the point Dansco missed. Weather Liberal or conservative, it has no place in the hobby and should be corrected.

 

Amen.

 

I agree too...I collect coins because it helps me stay interested in my country's history and the great men that helped make it what it is today. My goal is to read a book about each president as the coin comes in. I'll read the good and the bad and make my own decision about their success in office. The Presidential coins are meant as a show of respect for these leaders; the coin albums should reflect that respect, or just shut the hell up if they can't say anything nice! God Bless America! (Cue Star Spangled Banner here!)