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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;kaparthy, post: 494871, member: 57463&quot;]<i>United States Pattern Coins,</i> 10th Edition by J. Hewitt Judd, M.D., edited by Q. David Bowers, Research Associate Saul Teichman, 2009, 341 pages, $39.95.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>We easily call patterns “the coins that might have been.”&nbsp; It is true that many were design proposals that never enjoyed production.&nbsp; Those efforts mostly came in the late 19th century as the Barbers father and son competed against their handyman, George T. Morgan.&nbsp; Arriving in 1876, Morgan’s first year, 1877, obviously started a new era.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>However, financial flux in a free market always forced the United States Treasury and its Mint to experiment with denominations, metals, weights and finenesses. The Barbers and Morgan also mark a departure from the homegrown Americanist notion that our national Mint need not rely on foreign craftsmen – though of course, from first to last, we are a nation of immigrants. (John Reich was an indentured servant.)&nbsp; While the enterprising coiners of Birmingham extended the frontiers of numismatic art in the 1790s, it was all America could do to produce coins of any kind.&nbsp; We cherish their Georgian simplicity today.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>From the folksy charm of hucksterism to the dangers of market fraud, the loose ends of pioneer entrepreneurship were tied to the U.S. Mint.&nbsp; We call the 1804 Dollar the “King of Coins” – and odd name in a democratic hobby – but, of course, the coin is a fantasy, as are the two series of remakes.&nbsp; Other trial pieces are equally questionable.&nbsp; Yet all are work of the Mint and therefore interesting to collectors.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>For most of us, this lovely and affordable book must stand in for the Seated Cent, the Amazonian Patterns, the Schoolgirl, and the Martha Washington Dollar of 1999 that we will never own.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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