Ugliest U.S. Coin?????

The witchy woman

 

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That's a medal. A whole new can of worms.

 

Fine, then. If we're all focused on how physically attractive the person portrayed on the coin is, then who's going to step up and nominate the Lincoln cent? After all, he was famously considered ugly at the time.

 

Lincoln was fortunate that Brenner actually had skills and knew how to not make an ugly subject ugly. Brenner was a true talent!

 

Eunice Kennedy had the face of a Kennedy. But keeping thin, her active sun filled outdoors lifestyle during many of the years, and a bad case of aging wrinkles with the ability to keep her skin elastic somewhat was making her look like an old hag sometimes at her advanced age. But the designer did not have to pick the most unflattering angle or portray her as an old hag with the nose showing in that way. She could have been portrayed as a bit younger version of herself and with an angle where the wrinkles were not a focus. John F Kennedy could easily have looked quite similar at old age if he lived.

 

Legitimate artistic criticism is fine, art being subjective and all that. But when you read through coin collecting forum threads earlier this year on the design announcement, the reaction was much more extreme than you would expect for your everyday ugly Mint product. Part of that was "PC"-backlash, which I can sympathize with to a certain extent, but when you read comments calling Lady Liberty a "beast" or a "negress", or comparing her to Larry Fitzgerald, you start to wonder if an internet community made up of old white guys may be evaluating more than just the artistic merit of the design.

On another note, I think we may be judging the modern Mint too harshly. Looking at some of the early commemorative designs, it's clear the Mint was nearly as artistically bankrupt back then. One of my personal faves is the Rhode Island half dollar commemorating the first pajama party between the natives and pilgrims.

 

It irks me when people think that pictures of soldiers in war are supposed to be using the same practices as someone as a weekend casual shooting class

 

You nailed it Gunner. I always feel like finger-nailing off the slugs on those Iowa coins when I see them.

 

That's the golden rule, war, self defense or law enforcement. Especially when the weapon is pointed up/away. If I saw one of my officers do that he/she would be back in basic firearms training the next day.

 

Buffalo Nickel, the design to me looks crude.

 

I didn’t include commems or special issues too. There’s a lot of ugly ones there. I live in York county Maine yet I think the commemorative from there sucks

 

The US Mint conducted a limited invitation-only design competition for the WW1 dollar. The only design that the US Mint published from that competition is the winner (shown above). There were about 20 designs in this competition, and we don't know what any of those looked like.

My general observation is that I tend to disagree almost all of the time with the committees that review and recommend these designs. This includes the Citizen's Coin Advisory Committee (CCAC) and the Commission of Fine Arts (CFA).

Actually, there is one other WW1 design from the competition that has been shown (mine). I was one of the contestants in the official WW1 design competition. I never expected to win, nor was I completely satisfied with my own work. But here is an illustration of one design that was turned down in favor of the other winning design.

 

After 1981, they only made 1999.

Plenty of ugly coins. I think this should just be for circulating coinage. Effigy Mounds has already been discussed on several threads.
Susan B Anthony. Hilarious when kids used to call these Martha Washington dollars. And the reverse is pretty good.
Shield cents. An absolute disgrace to humanity.
Eisenhower dollars, although the reverse is nice.
Franklin halves. Boring and unattractive.

 

Thanks for the correction. I like your coin much more than the one that was chosen.

 

For me, it's the 1793 Flowing Hair Liberty Cent. When I first saw it, I said, "Frightful!"

 

People calling everyone racist who dislike the design is why that backlash exists. Liberty has come in two colors on coins until last year, silver and gold. If someone wanted they could pretend she was whatever race they wanted, anyone who was bothered by generic desprictions for not being a certain race is allowing race to play far far to big a role in their life.

Saying she looks like so and so happens with every coin. Are people racist for casting the Morgan face looks like a line backer or when they make jokes about countless other designs? All the threads I’ve read I’ve seen race injected into the discussion far more by those who feel everyone should like it. There are a lot of really bad design issues with it, not to mention the fact that coins are art and art is in the eye of the beholder.

 

Nice portrail of a Dough Boy in the trenches. I especially like the Enfield rifle!