Coins showing current presidents?!

I can't say No loud or long enough. It's bad enough we have deceased ones on our coins and bills.

 

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I wonder how coin circulation patterns might have changed if quarters, not half dollars, had been hoarded? I'm guessing not much -- halves might have circulated a bit more for a bit longer, but the Kennedy portrait wasn't the only factor driving them out of circulation, I think.

 

Well, when you come right down to it, the same could be said of cash...

 

The 1924 Democratic Nation Convention required over 100 ballots to select their presidential nominee. The battle was between New York Governor, Al Smith, and Woodrow Wilson’s son in law, William G. McAdoo. Smith was a Catholic and against Prohibition, which made him unattractive for many Democrats. McAdoo was straight laced and conservative. The convention finally nominated John W. Davis who privately acknowledged that he had little chance of winning the election.

Years later, Davis would be the opposing attorney in the landmark Brown vs. The Board of Education Supreme Court decision that ended segregation in the public school.

Here are some buttons

William Gibbs McAdoo



Al Smith. The brown derby was Smith's personal symbol.



John W. Davis and Charles Bryan, his running mate. Bryan was William Jennings Bryan's brother.

 

Had heard/read that or something similar at one point...and because the half dollar was the only coin without a president, it was selected instead.

 

Heck, I don't even want to see their picture hanging in every government building. We all know who the president is, and it smacks of "Dear Leader" type stuff.

 

More than a few wits thought the resemblance to the then president was no coincidence:

 

Any politician on a coin or currency violates the spirit of our democratic Republic. Other posts have already discussed that any President on a coin is monarchist. In Kennedy's case, his assassination voids the above argument. All other coins and currency should be symbolic of this Republic - Lady Liberty, eagle, flag, Independence Hall, liberty bell, etc. And since this Republic was predicated on civilian rule, definitely not military heroes. One possible venue would be to honor deceased important scientists, doctors/nurses, and first responders who gave their lives for this country or super-human patriotic feats. Jonas Salk (polio eradication) , Nathan Hale, Lewis & Clark (mapping the frontier) & Rosa Parks (equality) come to mind.

 

Salk appeared on a commemorative coin in 2015.



Lewis and Clark were honored a century apart.

1905 Lewis and Clark



2004 Lewis and Clark

 

I am aware of those, but they were one time & done. I meant on a continuous basis for at least 10 years.

 

I todays PC world there is very little that won't offend some one. Only paper money with just the denomination would be acceptable to some. Remember, San Francisco voted to rename schools named after Lincoln, Paul Revere, and Diane Feinstein, just to name a few.

 

Any design change is going to offend someone or some group of people regardless. This note from Bosnia and Herzegovina is probably one of the blandest notes in my collection. I'd be quite offended personally if something like it were issued in the United States considering how aesthetically unimaginative it is.

 

The simpler the design, the easier it is to counterfeit. The portraits make counterfeiting harder.

 

For most people, it's easy to distinguish slight discrepancies in faces. Apparently. For me, not so much. On the other hand, even a tiny difference in typefaces stands out to me like a sore thumb. But I know I'm not the "target audience" when it comes to currency design...

 

Yeah, um, no. And the President isn't considered to be "ruling," rather "serving."

 

Nope, there is no "over all" law that forbids living persons from appearing on US coins as there is for appearing on the currency. In the case of the state quarters, President dollars and ATB quarters the authorizing legislation specifically forbid it (on the dollars it required the President to have been dead at least two years before he could appear). But in the case of the First Spouse coins the legislation DIDN'T forbid it and Nancy Reagan was still alive when her First Spouse coins were struck. (She did die before they were released though.)

The difference being that Lincoln was the President, Chase was Secretary of the Treasury, Spinner was a Union General and then Treasury Secretary, William Fessenden was a Senator and then Secretary of the Treasury. Spencer Clark was a Treasury Department Clerk and the Superintendent of the Natianl Currency Bureau. In short the others were high government officials and Clark was not.

He was and so was Senator Carter Glass. What I always found interesting is that these two actually got to vote on the bills that put their portraits on the coinage.