Did this bill pass? I would not want to be an engraver for the US Mint in the coming years. I don't know what you'd even come up with for subject matter for some of this. In some ways we certainly have honored all of the presidents on our coinage longer than they ever could have imagined while some that were deserving were never recognized except for the dollar series. We were due for a change. I think the subject matter is getting so trivial now though, that there will be no interest. They may as well honor professional bicyclists. There's some niche group out there that will care but the vast majority will not. Realistically, the coin programs need to be about major historical events, major historical figures, topics etc.. that really impacted the nation as a whole. That's not the PC response but that's how it works. The ATB program was pushing it but in the end, understandable. Coinage traditionally is supposed to represent the nation issuing it. We had women on coinage, she was called "Lady Liberty". A fictional figure representing liberty has been more appropriate because being put on coinage used to be considered the highest honor, limited to very few. It also represented unity which we could use more of these days. What's the goal of these programs? Is featuring prominent women (who some will like and some will despise) going to get more women into coin collecting? I guess there's always a chance. It all looks like a flop to me.
Does the Mint even use true engravers any longer? Or are computer-created designs cut on the dies with lasers?
I found this video on-line. It suggests CNC milling machines are used (skip the 1940's stuff to around the 1:20 mark). Lasers apply the frosting to proof dies.
I save every one I come across. Best coin ever. We beat the British Empire (biggest of all time) and we ended slavery. Half the country did, anyway. The next best coin would be an 1865 commemorative, finishing what we started in 1776, and beating many other countries by years, if not decades.
And the best synonym of them all: Bicenquinquagenary If I found that on a coin I would give it to a paleontologist.
Your slavery comment isn't even close to historically accurate Also a weird comment when talking about bicentennial coins
The underground railroad went to the northern states. Dates for the northern states and territories ending slavery: 1780 Pennsylvania (Quakers were abolishionists) 1783 almost half 1787 almost half, including territories that later became Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. 1799 NY 1802 NJ And the UK officially ended slavery for kids in some of it's territories in 1853, and in various years after that for adults and kids in all their territories over the course of the next 6 years, so totally banned by 1859. Mexico was till trading Mayan slaves in 1861, according to a Smithsonian article on a shipwreck of slaves. 1890 Brazil ended slavery
Really not sure what your obsession with slavery is. I have less than 0 interest in getting into a drawn out historical discussion about what states were slave states including union states during the civil war, but slavery and especially the Mexican and Brazilian slave trade has absolutely nothing to do with bicentennial coinage