Make Coins Less Intricate

I think coin designs should be less intricate. I look at the prices for example lets say Jefferson Nickels and Full Steps. Is there really a need to make such detail where it would command such a premium which most collectores couldn't even afford anyways?

Full Steps (Nickels)

Full Bell Lines (Halves)

Fully Split Bands (Dimes)

Too much scrutiny over such things. I am perfectly happy with any MS condition regardless of Full Steps, etc...

David

 

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They'd lose a lot of collector revenue if that was the case. (The US Mint)

 

The Mint does not (and should not) design circulating coinage designed based on what collectors would find convenient.

Furthermore, as coin design relief gets lowered, it is necessary to add more detail in order for people to tell what the design is.

Look at a nickel from the early 60s, and compare it to one from today. The older coin has much softer details on the portrait, but the relief is much higher. On the newer coin the portrait barely raises off the surface of the coin, and there are more hair lines, etc. to help keep the thing identifiable as Jefferson. The quarter shows a similar situation.

As for full steps, that is a slightly different issue, but in any case the design is chosen, then made into coins As dies wear, details get fuzzy. This is a fact of life (except for mints that have a higher standard of quality).

 

I believe that there should be variety collectors who search for the best possible strike. Since there is a very limited number of coins to match the limited number of this type of collector, it is a good thing. These micro collectors and the money they pay for their coins do not effect the general price of the other coins.
It is good for the hobby.

 

Here...here

It is the detail that separates one coin versus another. Hair lines, steps, breast feathers, wing tips, wheat lines, etc., all play a part in the over all beauty of a coin. Otherwise, coins would look like subway tokens and do we really want that?

 

If all coins looked like Chucky Cheese tokens, I don't think we would consider this a hobby any more.

 

You are so right. The difference in strikes and varieties is what makes this hobby special. There are so many different types that can be collected in so many different types of conditions. This is one of the reasons why numismatics allows for a broad range of interests. There are many who collect for the intracacy of the artwork. Without the details, these collectors would have nothing to attract them. And let's face it, some of the prettiest artwork in the world has made its way onto a coin somewhere.

 

I think coins are too bland personally, i like really intricate coins, the more details the better.


As an example of the kind of stuff i like, (Fairly low relief though);

 

I want another, but next time Henry V.

 

Very nice Sylvester

 

I like to think that there is room for all collectors, with different tastes, in our hobby.
Personally, I don't care for modern "sandwich" coins, or Lincoln cents, but those that collect them are every bit as serious about their hobby as myself, or the next guy that collects and researches ancients.

Speaking of "Chuck E. Cheese" tokens; there is an avid collector base for those. Their research is incredibly extensive, and to say that these folks are "serious" about their hobby, is an understatement.

Take a look at this link and you'll see my point.

With hundreds of dollars being paid for certain issues, I wouldn't mind having a few myself.

 

I guess I am saying why have the steps? They are hard to see anyways and on old uncirculated rolls, they seem to be worn off even though they are uncirculated. Was it jsut because they weren't stamped hard enough?

 

Jody made an earlier referrence to why this happens. The steps are directly across from Jeffersons face which happens to be the thickest part of the coin. When being struck, the metal actually flows into the areas of the die. Well Nickel is the hardest metal used for our coins. Pressure, die preperation, planchet preperation, and relief all play small parts in why some Nickels are easily found with full steps and why some do not exist in any quantity. Most of the nickels produced from 2001 through 2003 can be found with full steps. The relief is lower, the presses are better, the whole system as a whole is better.

 

Let's get back to basics for a moment. If the primary purpose of coin design were to attract collector interest, we probably wouldn't have so many dead presidents and eagles!

Bear in mind that historically even the lowest denomination coins were often silver, and of substantial buying power in their economies. The original fundamental basis for government-issued coinage was the certification of weight and fineness.

Reeding and edge lettering were developed to protect against disguising the fact that part of the value had been removed by scraping, at a time when the monetary value of a coin directly depended upon its bullion content.

The original intent of hammering, casting or striking a complex design was to make counterfeiting more difficult, and even though in our "modern" economy coins are generally of too small a value to make counterfeiting profitable, old habits die hard.

The hunt for "full steps", "split bands", and similar evidence of excellent strikes is just that - a hunt for excellent strikes, usually by specialists in a particular series, and virtually never by those who seek out circulated coins since normal wear can be expected to remove - or at least obscure - such design details.

There is certainly room in the hobby for collectors with different tasts. After all, as a wise old man once said: If everybody liked the same thing, everybody would want my wife!

 

As a circulated coin collector i guess i'm siding with Satootoko here.

 

The euro kinda wrecked that didn't it GD?

Hard to stand up and say 'look at me'... actually we're the same as next door!

 

The problem as i see it GD is that it limits the freedom of the nations alot. Take Ireland, they had a choice of what to go with, animals on the reverse or the Irish harp. Now naturally they could have picked and mixed but they chose not to. They dropped all the animals for all harps, now if they'd done it the other way around they would have lost all their nationalism.

Seems you either have one or the other. Unless you have half of the coins one and half the other. But then you get the problem of the ones that don't have the national side, well unless you're a collector you're not necessarily gonna know what country that coin comes from!