Coins that should have never been issued and why.

It's because we as as nation never strive to be innovative. Look at some sectors of the Economy:

Auto Makers being run-over by much cheaper and fuel-efficent imports. Even a "Parable_of_the_broken_window" idea benefited Japanese car makers more than the Big 3. Not to mention the "Retro-Look" adopted by the Big 3 in their pony cars. I could swear this is the 21st century, not 1967!!

Hollywood actually STEALING ideas from foreign markets and re-adapating them for USA consumption in order to make a buck. And I can't say for the Adaptation from domestic media like Books and Television; Did we really need to go back to the 50's in order to get a movie idea? Really?

Even the Mint is taking the approach. Excluding Platinum, both Gold and Silver Eagles took two of the most recognized designs and "re-adapted" them for current use. I heard the art of engraving and sculpting is being lost, but was it that drastic and depressing? Why couldn't we get a new design for Bullion coins that evoked uniqueness?

Face it, we failed as a country.

 

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Well, maybe we can open some "Quaint Old Europe" open air museum for people who are so fond of the past. Preferably somewhere in the US, so that visitors do not even have to leave their country.

Whether you like euro coins or not, in terms of designs, is one issue. But I am glad we have the euro - and certainly not only for those who, as you put it, travel internationally. The latter sounds a little strange in a European Union where crossing an internal Schengen border is pretty much like crossing a state line in the US, and is done by many every single day, whether tourists, shoppers or commuters.

Now when it comes to coinage, right, the Belgian or Irish coins for example are pretty dull in my opinion. But that is how they wanted their coins. The ones from Italy or Cyprus for example are more attractive.

Christian

 

Keep in mind that they are made solely for collectors. My impression (I may be wrong here) is that many Americans who collect coins prefer "classic" designs over contemporary ones. If that is the case, it makes a lot of sense for a producer of collector coins to meet that demand.

And I don't think that applies to one country only. Portugal for example which has in the recent past issued quite a few very "sober" collector coins (see this Henry the Navigator piece http://www.euronumis.pt/imagens/imagensGrandes/8EHENR08PT.jpg for example) is now starting a new Numismatic Treasures series. And the first piece will be this one: http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/1301/morab.jpg

Basically a copy of an old Portuguese gold coin (the morabitino), this one will be issued in a Cu-Ni version and as a gold piece. And while in general I prefer modern designs for modern coins, this one looks better to me than the Henry piece.

Christian

 

spot on

Have to agree with you the irish and belgian coins
I love to look at my change to try find other member coins
My avater harp would have been much better she looks good
Dave

 

Negativity? Step aside. I dislike most contemporary coinage. Most new US coins are low relief, ugly and cheap. Euros remind me of cheap tokens as do most other nations coinage. I like classic coins but even there, the US has fallen short and have what I feel to be some of the least interesting, least original designs....most are just borrow old tired concepts, the only ones I believe are attractive and interesting (and unique to america) are the IHC and the Buffalo nickels (maybe a few others). In general, most US coins are ugly, uninspired and the modern ones are cheap and ugly...most modern world coins are the same...ugly and cheap. Even if they have a nice design (which most Euros and US coins do not) the cheap modern method of minting in super low relief makes them look and feel like cheap tokens. Certainly our money barely stands up in quality to jetons and tokens of old...in fact I find even old jetons and tokens to be of better design and quality...hell...even old play money is more interesting and better crafted.

Hell, I have no problem with putting our past leaders on coins. Certainly having the mug of a king, emperor, historical leader, or person of note has never stopped me from collecting a coin, in fact it often makes the coin that much more interesting in historical standards (I like portraits)...Or maybe people are okay with those sent to rule us by god, just not those elected by the people ...its just the low quality.

 

Indeed. I have that one too. Great piece. But who knows, if all Irish coins had used and still used Mestrovic's harp, people might want a different design now.

One problem for the designers of euro and cent circulation coins is of course that one side is always "taken". The Irish pre-euro coins would usually have the harp on one side, and some interesting or even intriguing design on the other side. Maybe it would have been possible, on the euro pieces, to combine some main design (different for each denomination) and a small harp ...

And of course the euro does not "destroy history and tradition". Sure, those countries in Europe that do not want it should stay out - perfectly fine with me. But for some strange reason we still have our history and tradition. We have always been able to collect coins from other countries or periods, we can do that today, and we will be able to do that in the future ...

Christian

 

Heavy Anwser

Not having the small denomination bills would force the lugging around of some pocket & purse filling bulk & heft.

The invention of the Small Dollar with Susan set us down a crooked road.

 

quote

One problem for the designers of euro and cent circulation coins is of course that one side is always "taken". The Irish pre-euro coins would usually have the harp on one side, and some interesting or even intriguing design on the other side. Maybe it would have been possible, on the euro pieces, to combine some main design (different for each denomination) and a small harp ...

You mean something this
Dave

 

Probably so, although I have a hard time seing the harp there. What I had in mind is something like QEII on most (or all?) British postal stamps - her silhouette is there but leaves room for the main design. Or take Polish collector coins like this one http://www.nbp.pl/banknoty_i_monety...e/2009/2009_10___wrzesien_1939_10zl_awers.gif - they always have the Polish eagle, but sometimes it is fairly small and combined with other elements. Granted, the bigger a piece is, the easier it is to achieve that ...

Now here is a German coin that should not have been issued - well, not with this design.



Christian

 

I like the dollar coin denomination and I like the Sacs. Not at all a fan of the prez dollars; heinous look to them---I dislike the nonprofile approach to the obverse and the reverse looks like it's perhaps a New York City bus token.

Worst of all in my book is the Susan B Anthony: the mint should've scrapped this once the original Gasparo design was overturned in favor of the women's lobby. Wrong size, etc., too.

 

I agree with and add almost ALL of them.
As to what coins should not have been made. NONE of those baby sized dollars. Almost all are just to close to a Quarter and although they learned a lesson with the ones that are the same color as a quarter, even the so called Goldesh color gets lost in a bar, tavern, etc. Our coins are a lot of size orientated so what looks like a quarter should be a quarter. You would have thought the Mint would have figured this all out with the attempted 20 cent piece.
Next I think the popularity of the Jefferson Nickel should also have been a hint to the Mint that something new should be used. Everyone I know liked the Indian/Buffalo Nickel and that has been proven by so many similar commemoratives. Even coasters for a drink made to look like that.

 

You know, I like the Sacagewea dollar too. Original designs look pretty nice, and it was also nice to actually have a flying eagle return! Of course, circulating dollar coins is a problem virtually entirely unrelated to the design.

What coins should not have been issued? The Susie B. certainly wasn't a good effort. The reason was they wanted to try a small dollar coin, but man, look how that went! And to top it all, they even had to issue a 1999 version! Took 17 years to use up the old ones. And it really makes no sense to have the moon landing reverse paired with women's suffrage.

Better effort with the Sac dollar. But I don't like the ugly toning it acquires through circulation. And why did they remove the date from the obverse in 2009? No reason. Perhaps anti-counterfeiting, but I like the date on the obverse.

Another set of coins we don't need: the current dollar Presidential series. Why? And to make these at the same time making other Sac dollars? Ridiculous. I guess the idea was: gee, since the quarters series worked so well, then people may use dollars if they had different designs too. Well, that's not true, is it? There's a difference between collecting designs and having coins circulate.

And another: I love the Kennedy half dollar, but why continue it? It doesn't circulate either. I have a hard time even ordering these from the bank.

Bottom line: If the Mint can make money making a coin, they'll do it. But that seems a bit different than its original purpose of making coins for public use in commerce.

You know what they need to do to get these to circulate? Every new vending machine manufactured needs to accept dollar coins. That's what needs to happen, but the vending industry opposes this due to expense. I think it would help them. After all, how many times have you ahd to walk away from a machine holding your last crumpled paper dollar that it won't accept? Now there's at least one reason for a dollar coin.

JMHO

 

I'm going to spin this a little, the worst thing that was made that single handedly took 90% of dollar coins off the market was the printing of the $1 Bill.

We need to stop printing these and people will get used to dollar coins again.

 

I also agree with suspending printing of the $1 bill. Isn't it much more expensive over the long run to print bills instead of issuing coins? Coins can last 30 years or more whereas the typical life of a dollar bill is around 18 months (?)

 

Disagree...paper money would start at $100 (a $10 bill in 1964 money). You would likely have less coins in your pocket at the end of the day than you do now.

The problem would be losing them. We would have to carry around those nerdy looking rubber coin pouches that you to squeeze to open. :goof:

 

That't the theory.

Having used many pres bucks I think it is also easier to reach into my pocket for a buck rather than have to open my wallet.

 

Agree about the dollars - dump the paper. Here in Canada a great outcry was raised with the announcement of the Dollar coin and the end of the paper dollar. That's probably the greatest reason it got to be called the "Loonie." Having a loon on the reverse didn't hurt, of course, but a contest to give it a "common name" didn't result in many suggestions of that title; it came from the people as they used it.

Point: today nobody thinks twice about having a dollar coin - even a $2 coin - it's just the way things are. And it's kind of nice when you think about your lack of folding money but discover $8-$10 of pocket change. (Not really all that heavy, either - but the quarters...)

 

SBA dollar is the ugliest coin ever.

 

All good points...but where do you put them (in the cash register, I mean)? ...and don't they seem a bit big to be worth only a dollar?

Other than the dollar coin, there hasn't been a significant change to the "size" or denomination of our coinage since before the Civil War. We knew this day would eventually come when we abandoned the silver standard...but no one seems to want to address it.

 

I would like to see them bump up the size of the dollar coin back to the Morgan, Peace, Ike (etc) coins. They say they are too heavy, (the Ike is heavy, I carry one in my pocket) so to cut down on that, maybe they can make them out of aluminum clad nickel, like Coppernickel without the copper.

I know a lot of people dislike aluminum coins, but I don't. I think they are cool. And being a lighter metal, I believe that means that they can be struck to a higher degree of relief at the same pressures...no?

Chrisild, I did not know it was so commonplace to go to other countries. I would love to visit Europe but I am deathly afraid of flying, and a boat ride is not much higher on my list.