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Message:: [QUOTE="dragondance, post: 2269829, member: 75859"]I, too, put the era of "modern coins" at 1948 and later, although the path to modern coins can be described in three phases. But by 1948, detail was no longer important, just high mintage which meant dies had to be used for longer periods, resulting in low relief, lack of importance in artistic merit, and emphasis on wear resistance. The designs with the most detail came between the mid 1800s and early 1900s. I would say that the Barber coinage was the harbinger to the modern era. They were workhorses among coins, and were primarily designed to be circulated rather than appreciated from a design perspective. But coins with great artistic merit still existed. The second phase was the final mintage of the Walking Half which had artistic merit. Finally, in 1965, all circulating coins except for the Kennedy half stopped being minted in silver. Now, coins are just a sad imitation of what they used to be.[/QUOTE]