2015 JFK Dollar Design Talk - COINage Writer Wants Your Opinion, Please!

Hi, everyone! My name is Josh, and I'm a longtime CoinTalker and also a featured contributor for COINage magazine. I'm currently writing an article about the new JFK Presidential $1 coin. I know there has been a lot of discourse about the design, which features the 35th president looking down toward the obverse rim; there has also been discussion about other aspects of the design, which I won't introduce so as not to sully your personal opinion about this.

My question to you is the following: what are your thoughts about the JFK dollar coin?

I would be interested in including some of your comments in this article to provide a braod-based capture about what the numismatic community thinks about this coin. By the way, I have also spoken to noted coin dealer Mike Fuljenz, renowned medalist Alex Shagin, and CCAC members Don Scarinci and Mary Lannin, whose comments will appear in this article.

I'm wrapping up this piece in the next couple days (by June 25), so the sooner you reply, the more likely your comments would appear in the article. Just so you know, CoinTalk admins have approved my posting this comment in this forum.

Thank you, everyone, for your time and thoughts!

 

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I don't really dislike the design, but it seems strange to have one coin with a design that is so different than all of the others in the series. I would have preferred the design closer to the others in the series purely for consistency.

 

I don't like the design personally based off what I've seen. It makes him appear sullen or depressed or something and his eyes look almost cross eyed. This is based off the mints photos of the coin as I haven't actually seen one in person but I'm not a fan based off the promotional images.

 

I agree, this is the best candidate out of all the design choices. CACC really knows how to choose designs the collectors don't want.

 

I did not like or dislike the design but as someone posted earlier I also thought this was a contemplative moment. He had much on his plate in his short tenure including the missile crisis, his generals wanting to go to war in Southeast Asia, discrimination in the south, etc. If anything I thought it was appropriate for a serious President during serious times.

 

I like the one shown for the same reasons Tommy just gave . I'm also glad to see a design that looks more like a coin than a gaming token as all the others seem to look . I really think every other presidents coin is demeaning in it's cartoonish , token look . Please give our coins the respect they deserve . Also if you have anything to do with picking our other coins please think of putting Miss Liberty back on our coinage . Also hire some 1st rate artists , there are plenty . We need more Weimans , and Brenners and artists of St. Gaudens ilk .

 

You can read the comments (and the poll, if it helps) on the thread I started yesterday. It also has all 5 designs, for those who haven't already seen them.

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/kennedy-presidential-1-coin-design.265364/

My choice would have been #4. It looks the most like him, in my opinion. I really don't like the pose in #1, and the person on the actual coin doesn't look like the design sketch, let alone like JFK himself! The pose is a subservient posture, which I don't think is fitting for any Presidental image. Someone on my thread did have an interesting point as to why that pose might have been chosen, though.

Here's the design for #4

 

I don't care for the chosen design either. Doesn't look like the other designs so it doesn't fit in. Seems out of place. My choice would have been design JFK-02 which looks the most like I remember JFK...

 

I agree with what's been said. There really was no explanation to why the design was so different then the rest. Some people have said it's because he was assassinated, well Mr. Lincoln was as well and he didn't get different treatment. I personally don't like the President Dollar series, they have nothing that really makes them stand out. Just like most of our modern coinage. There's a reason I don't collect anything modern.

 

Hello, everyone! You all have some wonderful and well-explained opinions on the JFK design, and so I thank you for all the thought you've put into these posts. I guess it's best if I use only the screen names of those who have posted here in this thread?

 

You can use my screen name Silverhouse.

 

I'm a little late to the thread because I just didn;t want you to publish how I really feel about the JFK Presidential Dollar.

In short, it makes me want to puke. It looks nothing like JFK but more like a cartoonish bug-eyed caricature not to mention the fact that it's the only coin in the current years proof set which is looking down.

I understand that they were trying to copy the official Presidential Portrait in the white house and that painting is certainly a grand piece of art, However, when you only use the bust portion, it totally loses the feeling of what the painting is passing to the viewer.

The coin is junk and whomever designed it should give up their career path in coin design. Put that person to work on the blanking machine!

 

My issue goes more to the next step than the chosen design.

I'm finding more and more that the pencil style CG renderings don't really look like the coin. Delicate shadings in the drawings become mush on the coin, both because of size and because of the differences in detail between the two mediums.

Where it comes together with the JFK design is that whatever subtlety is present in the rendering is going to be lost in the metal. And that's going to take a meh design and turn it into junk.

 

That's a good point. I would think that once they narrow the coin designs down to the "finalists," they could easily have those designs sculpted in clay (before making a final decision) for exactly that reason.

 

IMO, it's the worst of all the Presidential dollars. I understand there is a famous painting with Kennedy in a similar pose, but A) I wouldn't use that type of pose on a coin and B) the coin is a poor rendition of the painting.

 

I like design #2 best to. But it seems like some of the designs don't look exactly like him, funny how that works. I can't wait to read your article, I am an avid reader of Coinage and read every issue. I hope to get published there sometime, I have only been published in a metal detecting magazine.