I've heard for as many years as I've been collecting the excuses given for the complete lack of interesting artwork on US coinage, and it seems that 90% of the time the main reason is restrictions in relief detailing, which is blamed on the fact that higher relief coins cannot be stacked. In fact, in 1919 Treasury Secretary Franklin MacVeagh wrote in his annual report: "Coins have always aimed to be works of art, both in ancient and modern times. We do not hope, under present conditions, to equal the coins of the great ancient periods. The artists then had a far greater opportunity, because the coins did not have to be stacked." So, if ancient coins didn't have the need to be stacked, I have to ask why modern coins have the need. I've been to the bank and have never seen piles of stacked coinage anywhere. Stores don't stack coins either. Who is stacking coins and where? As an experiment I tried to stack non-stackable items (marbles) in a paper coin wrapper as would be used in banking. They stack just as efficiently as coins, given the paper wrapper surrounding them is closed. So, I concluded that wasn't the reason. All I can figure is that somewhere, in some secret underground vault of some eccentric rich coin hoarder, is a glimmering scene right out of the playbook of Ebineezer Scrooge, with piles upon piles of stacked coins. So, from where did this need for stackable coins arise? I'm surprised it hasn't come up before, as it seems to be the end-all excuse for drab coin designs, and has been for over two centuries now. Do we really need a coin that stacks? Guy~
My theory is that hundreds of years ago, coins had a whole lot more purchasing power, so there wasn't a need for as many per person. Therefore there was no need to even stack coins. But you are correct, relief on coins these days makes even a well designed coin look rather dull, and unappealing. Even the coins that used to have a fair amount of relief, lost it over the years. Just look at the difference in the 1968 and 1969 Lincoln cent, for example. I demand an explanation!
Have you ever seen a roll of coins? That is a stack. Have you ever seen a box of [name your denomination]? Those are stacked. Stacks are for ease of counting, transporting and storing. Sure, you can put 4-5 marbles in a coin wrapper but that's a waste of space and adds bulk and isn't an efficient way to store or transport coinage.
Back years ago they didn't have the fancy high speed counting and rollng machines. Coins were counted manually by stacking them. Coins with high relief were unstable when stacked and tended to fall over requiring recounting, and sometimes knocking over other stacks in the process. Lower relief coins were more stable. Today the low relief is for a different reason, metal flow. Back in the early to late twentieth century, the rate at which the presses ran striking coins was around 60 cycles per minute or about one coin per second per die. During that one second seven operations occured. The dies came together, they opened up, the anvil die rose up pushing the coin out of the collar, the feed fingers puch the coin out, the anvil die retracts, a planchet is dropped into the coining chamber, and the feed fingers get out of the way. Call it .14 seconds for each step. Todays press runs 750 cycles per minute or about 12 coins per second. Now each of those steps has just .011 seconds to take place. With the old press the metal had .14 seconds to flow up into the die, today it only has .011 seconds. Now the metal will only flow a given distance in a given time no matter how hard you smack it. So as the time allowed for the strike declined the relief had to be lowered more and more because the metal just wouldn't flow far enough in the time allowed.
Vending machines, poker players, banks all need them to stack. I just think it makes it easier to make them that way too for the machines. What would the die's look like if not?
I'm with you on this. We don't need ten billion cents struck each year. Instead, how about one billion nicely struck cents.
Yes, you do. And so does everybody else. There are not enough hours in the day or days in the year to produce the amount of coinage needed for commerce otherwise. The mints can barely keep up most years as it is. Remember - they do not mint coins for collectors. They mint coins to be used as money in commerce - that is their (the mint's) primary mission. And Conder is quite correct. At the time coins that were high relief were being argued about and complained about, they didn't have counting machines. They didn't have paper coin rolls. The only way the banks had to count the coins accurately was to put them in stacks and then count the stacks. Prior to that (the early 1900's) it wasn't much of an issue, because banks did not have the huge quantities of coins to deal with. So coins could have higher relief. They had more time to count them and bag them and seal the bags. Then all they had to do was count the bags. But as business and commerce increased because of the huge influx of people from other countries, the huge increases in population in the cities - the amount of coins that businesses and banks had to count every single day increased as well. And as always - time is money. So coins had to become stackable. That meant high relief had to go. After that, it was a matter of being able to produce enough coins, being able to make the dies last long enough to keep costs down, changing metal content etc etc. So the way coins are made today, is the way it has to be. Or it just doesn't work.
....i'm afraid that ship has sailed. they're getting worse rather than better. the 2010 cents are out and they too have horrible spots.
Thats what I was afraid of. Though I do believe if they brought back basining in coin fields like they did away with in the 90's, coin relief could be more defined and not a flat blob of boring nothing. I wish the Mint used the safe reasoning as most businesses used, in that quality trumps quantity. Guy~
It IS possible, if they discontinue the cent. The cent accounts for 3/4ths of all the coins produced. Stop making the cents and all that capacity is freed up. Now you can slow the presses, increase the relief, and still produce the coins the economy needs. Of course you know this as we have discussed it before. Won't work. They got rid of the basining and went to the flat fields for the reasons I mentioned in my last post the metal just can't be moved that far in the time allowed. A basined field means the field of the die has to be forced further into the metal of the planchet and it just can't be done in .01 seconds
Lots of things are possible - if. But the if must first be satisfied. If it is not, it isn't. Wonderful word if
