Modern Change As an employee of McDonalds, who works mainly on registers, I am given the opportunity to search a lot of coins. This also given me a chance to further examine the designs of the modern cent, nickel, dime and quarter. My favorite of the four would have to be the quarter. I love the detail in the eagle on the reverse and the reeded edge. My least favorite modern design is the Jefferson Nickel. I don't understand the reasoning for featuring Monticello on the reverse. Nothing historically important happened in this building. They could have come up with much better things to put on the reverse. Also, in a very worn condition, the nickel looks the worst. Cents, dimes and quarters still maintain their design when worn because of the many details and elevations of the design. When minted, Monticello is very flat. Twenty years later, Monticello is now a blobbed outline and an extremely unwanted design. I especially dislike the newer nickel depicting the straight on image of Thomas Jefferson. It doesn't really look like him and it makes him look very old. Favorite Cent, Nickel, Dime Quarter, Half and Dollar Designs The cent designs are a choice between Large Cents, Flying Eagle Cents, Indian Head Cents, Lincoln Wheats and Lincoln Memorials. My favorite design is the IHC. Rounding a very close second was the Flying Eagle Cent. The IHC uses a plain and simple design that is interesting and intriguing. The IHC is also one of the greatest looking toned coins. A nicely toned IHC is superior to a toned specimen of any other coin. From a collectors standpoint, the IHC is a fairly challenging set to collect. With multiple key dates including the 1908-S and 1909-S. In fact, many IHC dates before 1870 will set you back up to $30.00 each. The choices for the nickels include Jefferson, Buffalo, V Liberty and Shield. My favorite is the V Nickel. It design is fairly flat, causing it to wear pretty quickly. However, an MS V Nickel displays a beautiful design including the denticles around the rim. Again, like the IHC, the design is plain and simple but stands out. The stars in the obverse highlight the woman in the center. The reverse is entirely writing but is placed appropriately to make it more noticeable and help to draw attention to the V in the center. The choices for dimes include the Roosevelt, Mercury and Barber (the 20th century designs, to keep it simple). My favorite is the Mercury. The time I realized this design was superior was at work last week. It was the first transaction in the morning and the dimes were wrapped in a clear plastic roll. I looked at the edge noticing silver halfway down. I said to myself,"Wow, I haven't gotten a Silver Roosie in a while." Surprisingly, as you may have figured out, it was a Merc. A 1936-D. A common date but the first I'd found in circulation. The design is powerful, featuring Mercury on the front and the branches on the reverse. Apparently, the branches design was a good idea because it carried over into the design of the Roosevelt. The choices for quarter are the Washington, Standing Liberty and the Barber. I dislike any Barber designs with the woman on the front because it is used for three denominations: the dime. quarter and half. The Standing Liberty is my favorite. The eagle on the reverse is one of the greatest looking eagles on US Currency. The eagle on this coin is much small than the eagle on most other coins (except the Franklin half where the eagle is the size of, well, this: :hail: ) This smaller eagle is much easier to notice than that of a Washington Quarter. The choices for half dollar are Kennedy, Franklin, Liberty Walking and Barber. I'm collecting the Barbers right now, trying to complete the set and I really like the design but my favorite is Liberty Walking. The eagle on the reverse looks very powerful and intimidating and the woman on the front is graceful and perfectly positioned. The sun in the background has been a model for many other coins to follow. The final coins, Dollars. Morgans, Peace, Eisenhower, SBA, Silver Eagle, Sacagawea and Presidential. I can eliminate a few right now. Eisenhower, SBA, Presidential. I haven't had much experience with collecting Peace Dollars but no the design well enough. My favorite is the Morgan Dollar design. One of the most collected coins in US History, the Morgan Dollar has a very strong design. The coin has a very high raised design. This one of the easiest coins to collect. MS examples are easy to find in this 100+ year old coin. I'd say if your collecting pick either toned or a certain mintmark. The mint of choice, of course depends on your budget. O and P would be the cheapest, than S and than CC. So whether you want to pay 40 for a Morgan or 400 is up to you. Please comment with your thoughts and your single favorite US coin design.
