On a scale of 1 to 10, how well do you like Seated coins?

Here's my seated dime.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Agreed. It's too finicky at that scale. Much nicer larger.

The failure of the Seated Liberty design at the dime scale shows just how powerful the Mercury Dime design is. It's a small format!

 

Funny, not what people sometimes guess. I'm an artist (painter) and, well, the oval shape has figured prominently in my work—both representational and abstract—over the years. I'd be happy to link you to my website but I think it'd have to be via pm.

I'm a semi-retired art professor. I also worked as a graphic designer for eight years, long ago.

 

Yup. Not what I guessed. Thought you might be into 1888o VAMs as all oval O's are top-100's lol. Sure link away

 

Overall I would rank the design a 7 or 8. A few observations:

1. In lower circulated grades, Seated coins look better than Barbers. Worn Barbers are flat out ugly.
2. In AU - UNC grades Barbers look absolutely gorgeous, even better than Seated.
3. I agree with the previous posts regarding the design being too busy for dimes and half dimes. The design looks best on a dollar.
4. I just realized that #3 explains why I've always liked the earlier reverse design on the dimes and half dimes better than the later one (that also appears on Barber dimes). The earlier reverse is more aesthetically pleasing because it is simpler, fitting better with a small format.

 

8, beautiful classic design.

 

A lot of highly regarded US type coins aren't really that attractive. My opinion of most of them is primarily influenced from when I started collecting in 1975 and I'd look in the Red Book and other coin books at coins that were hopelessly out of reach financially which I wished I could buy.

Today, I can buy most of them in some grade and still like the same coins but not as much as I did and don't consider them competitive for the price.

I'd rate the Liberty Seated about a "6" with the arrows and rays the best one. Concurrently, it's likely one I'll never buy because I'll always spend my money on coins I like more.

 

I used to despise the design, but have amazingly done a 180. I think the half dollar is the best size. Here's a nice one (with PL reverse) in my collection:

 

I can compromise on the toning, I suppose, if the coin has DMPL surfaces. Here is the only Seated Quarter graded DPL by NGC (for the entire series):

 

Problems is very very few of them are either of those two things. And being a proof can go a long way to making any coin look good. Even a frosted proof SBA can almost be considered presentable.

As for how well I like seated, well they aren't my favorite, but I like them better than Morgans and I gave the Morgan a 5, so probably a 7 maybe 7.5.