Iconic Symbols of America

I was thinking on the way home today that i hate the dead presidents on coins, and that the Flying Eagle Cent was really special...

And many of the state quarter designs were interesting because the states had to find icon images of their state. Deleware comes to mind. Ohio, Wyoming etc. And the most special of all was the design of the Buffalo Nickel.

What made the Buffalo Nickel especially interesting was that at 1913 it combined two powerful and ancient symbols of the New World and America specifically, both of which we were driving to extinction. They were the Native American "Indian" and the Bison. This coin is quite unique in this regard and artistically, the work on Nickel with the minting process of the times, was a unique aesthetic design.

OK - lets say we scrap the who current coinage and we want to use new iconic symbols for America. Not just the Statue of Liberty and the Eagle, but something even more connected to the heritage of America. What would we put on the coins without repeat tired ideas?


Its a tough question?

Some ideas I had were as follows:

The Railroad
The Minuteman
Slave reverse: Free man Obverse
The California Condor
Tobacco --- No
The Brooklyn Bridge
The Golden Gate Bridge
A Beaver
A Paddleboat
Corn
The Twin Towers
The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington
The Bear, Grizzly
A Peddler


Ruben

 

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maybe this would be more interesting if I made this a contest...

Ruben

 

How about one with immagrants getting off the boat in NY

 

or jumping over the fence in Arizona ...sorry couldn't resist.


Ruben

 

Patrick Henry - "Give me liberty or give me death"

 

yeah that's a good one

 

We have a commem for that one....actually they're not getting off a boat.

 

Railroads. Would love to see something done up to honor the contributions that railroads have made to the growth of our country. The Europeans have done it, why not us?

 

How about concentration camps, whoops clumsy me, I mean Indian Reservations?

Let us not forget America's very own genocidal ethnic cleansing in the 19th century.

 

Or dying in the desert just to get here. Again, apologies.

 

I think I'd prefer a Revolutionary War battle scene with dead British soldiers who died trying to oppress Americans. Sorry, I couldn't resist.

 

Those Highlanders were one tough regiment.....

 

Don't leave out the Hessian mercenaries either.

 

Ben Franklin preferred the turkey over the eagle, how about adding that to the list. It's not pretty, but it is iconic.

And what's wrong with bringing back Lady Liberty? or symbols of the westward expansion like a Mississippi riverboat or the "gateway to the west", the St. Louis Arch? How about the covered wagon?

What about Baseball and Apple Pie? Sasquatch? Johnny Appleseed?

And the Beaver is more a Canadian Icon than American.

 

Nathan Hale:

I regret that I have but one life to give to my country

But what is the image?

Ruben

 

Henry pounding the table, I guess......:rolling:

 

The railroad more represents the growth of America than it does Europe and the iron horse is directly linked to American strength. A coin with a railrod would be huge, maybe the Nickel.

Ruben

 

I don't know about that. Ever hear of John Jacob Astor or the Mountain Men?

 

The Beaver trade was absolutely the key trade of early American development. In fact, the Astor fortune was made on Beaver pelt, and the expansion west to Kentucky, and through the Rockies was based on the fur trade. Beaver furs acted as money for over 100 years and could be the universal image of the US dollar.

Ruben

 

Yes - we can have a dollar beaver....I like that. With the Capital dome on the obverse?

Ruben