Replacement Of People On Our Coins

I read a lot of these posts believe we should celebrate the "Idol" the coins represent. It was mentioned in an earlier post - not a single one of these men wanted, would want or envisioned they would be the face of the various symbolism's they are being representative of on our coinage today. I believe most would in fact point to the root of the nation - not draw attention to themselves as the point man on any of the things they hoped to achieve but what all people hoped to achieve in their lifetimes.

Washington did not want to lead our nation - he was asked to lead. Lincoln did not set out to free the slaves - yet lived in a time when he believed they should be freed and did what he had to do to make that happen. I could go on and on... but the bottom line they all believed in the basic premise - America was founded with basic principles that all men (all men meant all people), are created equal and should be allowed to pursue these basic tenants...

Life - Liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

That is why I am for returning to those symbols for our coinage. I think many have lost that/those visions and would focus on the achievements of the individuals placed on our coins - if we simply just rotate a former president or leading statesman on to the surface of a penny or a nickel or dime. America was founded with a vision for all people and when we turn the focus and start singling out 1 person above all others - that ideology is lost.

My proof reading is terrible..hence the edit.

I suggested clad materials for the higher denominations, rather than ring-&-plug bimetallics, because they are more difficult to fake, & last longer in circulation. Ring-&-plug coins suffer from galvanic corrosion when in contact with an electrolyte such as human sweat, but sandwich coins are not affected to any great extent. I have never seen a US, Panamanian, or Thai clad coin which showed the least evidence of inter-layer corrosion. Clad bmetallics with a colour contrast at the edge are visually recognizable as genuine & difficult to imitate, while all clad materials can have the electromagnetic properties "customized" to a great extent.

In the Eurozone, some counterfeits of the 50-cent coin have been seen, but most are of the 1- & 2-Euro pieces. Making the half-dollar slightly heavier, & of cupronickel instead of a more-easily-imitated brass composition, seems a sufficient security. I tend to think that the Euro coins are just a little too small & light to give the desired impression of stability & substance that one wants in a currency.

The current Australian 50-cent coin, which seemed to me to circulate very widely when I visited Melbourne a couple of years back, is about the size of my proposed double-dollar denomination (actually noticeably heavier, at over 15 g). This I regard as about the largest size for a widely-circulating coin, so I give it to the largest base-metal circulating coin.

The half-eagle, which I would expect to circulate to some extent (less than the double-dollar, considerably more than the eagle & double-eagle), although smaller than the double-dollar, has its silver content to give it the feeling of "substance" commensurate with its value. I chose 800 fine for the silver cladding because my observations of Canadian coins, as well as the silver-clad US coinage with its 800-fine surfaces, lead me to believe that this alloy combines visual appeal with durability to a maximum for the various silver compositions.

Notice that in all my proposed denominations, there is an upward trend in size with value : the double-dime (bottom of the cupronickel pair) is bigger than the half-dime (bottom of the nickel-brass pair), the dollar (bottom of the polygonal clad pair) is bigger than the double-dime, & the half-eagle (bottom of the silver-clad) is bigger than the dollar. Furthermore, the bottom member of each pair is bigger than the top member of the last-but-one, ie, the dollar is bigger than the dime, & the half-eagle than the half-dollar. If you wanted to represent it like a rhyme-scheme in poetry, it would be ABACBDCDD (lumping in the double-eagle with the eagle & its half, despite the difference in the details of their silver-clad compositions).

I would love to see American ideals represented. A return of Liberty, but perhaps also personified figures of industry, justice, etc. I don't think it's doing the framers any injustice to replace them after so long with the ideals they championed. Also, some memorial of them could remain on the reverse.

Now here's a funny (and bad) idea. What if the current president were always featured (sort of like the reigning british monarch)? Suddenly, coinage would become a very partisan issue. I can picture some people not taking certain coins as change because of their feelings about one president or another. I would love to see the fallout from that one!

I can see the stories now on the current president coins... Some of the gossip rags are ripping Drew Brees for leaving a $3 tip on a $75 order. Next we will have - he left me 3 measley Hillary Clinton's!

Joseph Stalin, of course...!

I always thought Teddy Roosevelt with his spectacles would make a good coin or FDR with his cigarette clinched between his teeth.

I have to agree with Raymo.

These are very popular icons of Americana and I think the public likes it too much.

Consider this, the 1932 issue of the Washington quarter was only intended to be a one year commemorative. However it was so popular that the Standing Liberty quarter never returned and now that coin has morphed into a series of circulating commemoratives starting with the 1975 & 19756 issues of the BiCentennial Quarter and then the States Quarters, DC & Territories and now the America the Beautiful Quarters. I for one want to see the original reverse.

The Jefferson nickle isn't going anywhere anytime soon. By act of Congress it is to be minted for 150 years and it required an act of Congress to permit the reverse designs for the Westward Journey series because the "Return to Monticello" was dictated in the original act of Congress which was enacted so the Jefferson nickle was really a promotional tool for Monticello.

Kennedy is on a "circulating" coin since 1964 although no one uses them and the mint hasn't been releasing them into circulation since 2000. But there are some making the rounds, as are a few Eisenhower dollars clanging around.

Now, I do think there is a case for creating a $2 coin and I think Reagan would be a good candidate for that. For many reasons we need to kill the $1 bill and replace it with the billions of $1 coins and a $2 coin makes that all the more feasible since it cuts down on the number of coins.
It could also stop the movement among some GOP members of Congress who want to replace Grant with Reagan on the $50 bill!

I created a separate topic (A $2 coin for Ronald Reagan) for anyone who wants to weigh in on that matter, but I am all for keeping what we have now except for special commemorative issues