Oh my , Yes . That design would have pleased me and probably have been better received . Size was an issue with SBA dollars but this design would be noticeable . The U.S. Mint tried to save money by reducing the diameter but what were they thinking nearly matching the quarter dollar ?
Well, I suppose if I were try to pick just one I'd have to say the Netherlands gold ducat. I've studied them more than any other single coin and had more of them in my collection than any other single coin. And while it was the design that first caught my eye, it was the history of the coin and the effects it had upon the world that held my interest. For a very strong argument can be made that this was the single most important coin ever minted, it literally shaped the world to be as we know it today. But unless one studies them, you'd never even be aware of that. It is also the only coin of the same basic design that dates back 433 years now that is still being minted today. In the entire history of coinage only 1 other design was ever minted for a longer period of time, and it too was a gold ducat, the Venetian ducat. It was minted, same design, for 750 years ! There were many other designs that I liked a lot and most of them can be viewed by anyone who takes the time to look through the many albums I have posted here on the forum. And I say most of them because I quit collecting US coins before CT even came into existence, so only a few of them have been posted here. But I can list a few by name. I was always fond of Saints, the $10 Indian, Walkers, Buffs, some of the early gold. And among the more modern, ASEs and AGEs, and even a few commems. And had the design been chosen for the new small dollar in 2000, this would have been another favorite -
For me it's the Peace Dollar, not so much for the design but more so for the low relief and mushy details.
Interestingly, the ducat is referred to in the Dutch coinage act (muntwet) even today. The law states that it is a coin without legal tender status (munt zonder de hoedanigheid van wettig betaalmiddel), and lists all its specifications. And the new law, necessary partly because the Royal Dutch Mint is no longer a national (government) mint, is not going to change that ... Christian
Regarding the American Innovators dollar, I like the reverse with the gears and the Washington Signature. The obverse is bland.
Yes indeed. I think what I despise most is the fact they are either worn and uglier and cheap, or in MS and expensive and slightly less ugly. Also not a big fan of Charles Barber. Big baby.
I, too, cannot get behind the Barbers. His Lady Liberty is a rather handsome fellow. They were the workhorses of our coinage (hence the difficulty in finding high grade examples) and they invoke, for me, a sense of "Americana" more than probably any other design with the possible exception of Morgans and Seated coinage. But I'm otherwise not a fan. I could certainly have gotten behind this design, especially the reverse. Wow! Sacagawea is nice, but.....wow!
I'm not particularly fond of Morgan Dollars... for me, artistically not that attractive, and numerically speaking, too generic.
So the roadkill VF details coin is better than then MS67+CAC rainbow-toned example? You’re aware coins can be cracked out...? ;-)
I was never one to really collect sets of coins, I did a few times but mostly I was an eclectic collector. If a coin was of a design I liked, and I liked the specific coin itself, then I would buy it. When I was collecting US coins my specialty was original Mint and Proof Sets, and I had almost every one. And I was constantly trying, for decades, to find better examples of each. If I went to a coin show I might go through a thousand original and Mint and Proof Sets at that single show. About the only ones I did not have were the '36-'41 original Proof Sets. And the only reason I didn't have them was because in 40 years of searching for them I only ever found 1 set - 1 single set, a '41 if memory serves - and at the time I didn't have enough money to buy it. As for sets I had a complete set of Kennedy halves in the highest grades possible because Kennedy was special to me, I knew the man, sat on his knee when I was only 6 years old. I had a complete set of ASEs, again highest grade possible, partial sets of AGEs all denoms, mainly only the better dates and highest grades. Other coins were a widely varied mix of designs I liked. With world coins, I set out to be the 1st person to ever collect a date set of Netherlands gold ducats. I quit collecting before I ever got there but I still had a better collection of them than anyone but a couple of select museums. My other world coins, as I said above, anyone who wants can go through my albums posted here, and there are many, to see a sample of what I used to have. But I specialized in world gold, particularly hammered gold.
That's sort of my gameplan, too. I just went to the monthly Parsippany, NJ show and met a dealer whose client found (!) 2 proof 1907 HR Saints that his grandfather had from decades ago. The dealer will hopefully buy the higher-rated one in the future when the seller wants to part with it. In the meantime, he has the lower-rated one but his wife doesn't want him to part with it. BEAUTIFUL coins...if I had the $$$, that is the kind of masterpiece I would buy.
On the contrary, a dollar coin was very seldom used anywhere other than the frontier during the 19th century. The dollar coin has never been popular with the American public and the government should not be trying to force it down the throat of an unwilling populace regardless of any so-called tax savings. So-called because any savings would immediately be swallowed up by Congress anyway.