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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;iPen, post: 2358062, member: 69760&quot;]If the US Mint is required by Congress to make US dollars according to their weight requirements, then is this why modern coins seem to lack the design intricacies of classic and older coins?</p><p><br /></p><p>For example, the US silver dollar needs to weigh 26.73 grams. It would be easier to make designs where the device-to-field ratio is low (there are plenty of field spaces on the coin). I&#039;d think it would be simpler that way, instead of making a bunch of designs then making test strikes to see if they weigh the required amount. Perhaps there was a change in mentality that led to the modern / classic divide, and that mentality stuck because it was easier to do. Is this why moderns look so plain and less intricate relative to classic coins? Or, what&#039;s the reason?</p><p><br /></p><p>Granted, classic coins were made with that weight restriction in mind, too. But, why the shift? It&#039;s as if better technology in more modern times meant less desire to employ more manual labor towards die/hub design - the relative difference between how everything else is done and the design efforts to simply meet the weight requirements may have made the manual designing process too much of a trial and error ordeal.</p><p><br /></p><p>And, when I look at commemoratives, there was a rather long break from commemorative coinage between the Booker T. Washington commemorative half of the 1950&#039;s and the 1983 George Washington commemorative half. For whatever reason this long commemorative recess took place, perhaps this two generation or so stoppage of commemorative strikes made the Mint lose its way, and it was easier to keep the designs simple to meet those weight requirements. Maybe the US Mint experienced a huge exodus of artists all at once, and there wasn&#039;t enough foresight to keep the artists and the commemorative program running. Or, perhaps the end of the Bretton-Woods system was already underway in the 1950&#039;s, and US Mint was one of the earliest signs of that (conspiracy or otherwise).</p><p><br /></p><p>Thanks in advance![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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