The Duke quarter is one of the most genius ideas that the us mint has ever minted, IMO. I wonder what other coins, (including world coins) celebrate a musician? Anyone? I know there's a Canadian guitar coin and the TN quarter has a guitar on the back. Are there any other coins with musical instruments on them? Any?
There's the US Bicentennial Quarter with a drummer on the reverse. The Louisiana 2002 Quarter has a trumpet on the reverse. The 1995 Civil War Battlefields Half has a drummer. The 1936 Cincinnati Half has a harp player.
I hate the DC quarter - I think its the worst idea the mint ever had. All the history in that city, and they settle on Duke Ellington? I love Duke, I love jazz, but honestly. But back to the question on musical instruments. Mytilene, Lesbos AE19 3rd-2nd century BC laureate head of Apollo r. lyre between two monograms, MY and T-I in fields BMC 17. 192-3, 96-105, Sear 4273
For bullion coins the austrian philharmonics (got my first one thursday for 19$) it has a harp, cello, bass, violins and horn and flute, at least thats what I think they are not being very musically knowledgable
Who or what would have been a better choice than Duke Ellington for the District of Columbia? http://www.coinnews.net/2008/06/20/dc-quarter-design-of-duke-ellington-wins-4193/
As for euro circulation coins, there is Mozart on the €1 piece, and (as mentioned before) the harp on all Irish coins. If you included collector coins, the list would get pretty long. The UK had three trumpets on the 2006 £5 commem (Elizabeth's 80th birthday). And the Irish harp appears on some current circulation coins: 1p (top left part of the harp), 5p (top right), 50p (bottom), and the £1 which shows the complete CoA. Christian
Well there are certainly more instruments on coins than I thought, especially more on world coins. Are there any others that show a man and his instrument like the Duke quarter?
There is this "Louisiana Purchase" (umm, Sale) piece from France for example, featuring a jazz musician with his trumpet. It is not supposed to be any particular artist, but he looks a little like Louis Armstrong ... Then we have this Austrian coin; Joseph Haydn died 200 years ago ... Portugal issued a "Fado" coin last year, with the fado singer Amalia Rodrigues: And we get back to Ireland, or rather Ireland and Croatia. Both countries issued coins honoring Ivan Mestrovic in 2007. The reverses, identical for both pieces, show his suggestion for the country's first coins, made 80 years ago. However, his designs arrived too late ... All these are collector coins though, and are not issued for circulation. Christian
If you are on the NGC chat boards, PM a guy who goes by the name "RI AL". He is a semi-retired high school music teacher, and he has an extensive collection of music themed coins. And when I say extensive, I mean ranging into the hundreds of coins. If you aren't on the NGC chat boards, you should join us
