Whats with the new and Uglier coins..

I will first say that is a beautiful coin with a really beautiful eagle on the reverse. However, the image of Liberty is muddled, blurry and unclear and in my opinion, just plain ugly. I will agree that the luster and strike of the coin does improve things, but it will never compare to Morgan's Liberty.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

I agree completely.

 

Wow, indeed. I think the Peace is just beautiful!

 

I agree with this entirely. Let's get back to American ideals: much more stimulating than old guys. (I say that; I'm an old guy ).

I also think the whole "please Congress, please the committee" approach hurts things.

Finally, it would be a great public investment to put better coin presses in at the Mint. . . presses that could do more high-relief stuff. Keeping things low relief hurts the cause of good design by constricting the design possibilities.

 

Sure it does and it has been done all over the world when currencies have depreciated so much that the numbers start becoming inconvenient, the small change no longer has any purchasing power, and even the largest coin is considered piddling small change. Or are you saying we aren't as smart as the Mexicans who handled a 1000 to 1 revaluation with no problem back in 1992? The French have done it at least five times. Can the French do something we can't? (Heck in Zimbabwe they did it five times LAST YEAR, but that is a different matter.)

Sure you could. If we do a 100 to 1 revaluation (100 dollars = 1 n$) Then silver is around 14 newcents an oz. The silver in a Newquarter is worth less than 3 newcents, but the face value of 25 newcents has the same purchasing power as $25 in old dollars. The Newcent has the purchasing power of the old $1. Penny candy makes a comeback. In fact a newcent would buy an entire, larger size candy bar. Other things would be priced with the same ratio, this includes previous contracts. That $15,000 car is now $150, your $250,000 morgage is now $2,500.

But remember there is no free lunch. Your $50,000 a year income is now $500 a year.

This all looks shocking at first until you realize that NOTHING has changed. Yes your income is 100 times smaller, but everything cost 100 times less so the money goes exactly as far as it did before. Your net worth had the decimal point move two places to the left, but so did all your debts and expenses, so the net change is ZERO.

What about those things that cost less than a dollar today? Well after the revaluation you will either get larger sized packages, or you may get more than one for your newcent. (Just like years ago you might get several pieces of "penny" cant for your one cent piece.)

So it can be done. Oh and gold coins could come back as well. A one oz newdouble eagle would have an intrinsic value of roughly nine newdollars, and a face value of twenty newdollars (And the purchasing power of $2,000 old dollars), a new quarter eagle would have 1.12 newdollars in gold, a face value of 2 1/2 new dollars, and the purchasing power of $250 in old dollars

 

OTOH . . . I think the Lincoln cent obverse is better than, say, the Barber series.

But, going back to having every single thing be variations of a Lady Liberty seems a bit boring, too . . .

 

Ohh, that's true. There can be too much of a good thing, and I DO think the Barber series is boring since it's so extensive.

 

Agreed.

 

Here's my opinion..art and design is a passion of mine.

The mint may or may not have some great artists. I do not know.

The best possible creative environment for an artist is to be given a wide field to in which to execute his idea.

Some of the great coins of the past were created because an artist had the latitude to create a memorable design.

The mint of today is very conservative. They do not want to create a coin that is in the least controversial. They fear failure more than they crave success. Such a view inevitably results in mediocrity.

That is why today's designs are so lackluster.

The style on most coins today is what I call "photo-realism." All the proportions are right, the figures are anatomically correct, but there is no soul.

If I were the director of the mint, I would have a open competion. The theme would be "freedom" (or liberty). It would be open to anyone.
It would be judged by a jury of accomplished artists.

I think the result would be far more interesting than the ho-hum coinage we see now.

 

You've nailed it.....

 

I definitely agree with where your going maybe not a series based on a certain president(s) but a series based on the basic ideology the country was founded upon, this could last far longer than the 50 state Quarter series or the Lincoln Memorial (although that dull coin never seems like it is going to end)

 

I find the obverse of the Liberty dollar gorgeous.

On this coin,Liberty like our country is young, yet vulnerable, she faces the future with wide open eyes and astonishment.

The reverse is more like the "B" side of a hit record. OK, but nothing special.

 

I think you can have a great coin design based on a lot of things whether it be an idea or the 50 states.

I just don't think the mint has any sense of adventure when they decide on a design.

It was as I recall, the willingness to experiment and take risks that made this country great.

I'd like to see the mint take a few more risks. This will result in some failures, but there will also be spectacular successes.

Ford had its Edsel, but it also had its Mustang.

 

I still think part of the problem is that all of the artists in the Mints artist extension program have their primary training and specialized training in two dimensional art not sculpture. Only one of them has any experience in medallic art.

 

One problem with putting a dead president on a coin is once they are on there getting them off. No poliltician wants to be known as the one that introduced the bill that would remove Washington or Roosevelt (or any other for that matter) from their coin. The only way it will be done is by a commission sort of like back when they did the military base closure thing.

I actually thought there was a commission that was going to do just that this year.

 

Then how did we get rid of Eisenhower? It's surprising they didn't continue with him when they switched to the small sized dollar, but as far as I can remember Eisenhower wasn't even one of the possible choices for the new coin.

 

You asked me the question and I can only come up with one answer. The Ike Dollar was a specific type of dollar that was discontinued. The SBA was a whole new concept of a dollar coin. I have no idea if this why, but it seems logical to me.

 

But yet the reverse design did carry over to the new concept. I would have thought they would have been more likely to preserve a Republican President than the Apollo moon landing reverse.

 

I pulled that answer out of my hat (1950s TV language here). I have no idea other than what I posted, but the SBA was a totally new concept in the mintage of a dollar coin. That is the best answer I have.