Who Said......

I don't know, but I've heard it before. I'm not at all sure I agree, but to each his own. I do know I travel a lot in Canada and have heard similar about our paper money, "It all looks the same.". However, this is the same country which has a picture of a 22-year-old Queen on its coins and on some paper (e.g. $20), with some of the most obscure personages on others of its paper money, e.g. Sir Wilfrid Laurier, PM 1896-1911 ($5). This is not to belittle Canada where I have almost a second home in Labrador and earned a Canadian ham radio license (VO2FS), but to illustrate that opinions diverge. I'm straying here a little off the OT, but the US Mint spends a lot of time developing coins which will last a long time in circulation, a factor which is, I believe secondary to artwork. Further, if our coinage were to turn into an art gallery, there would be no end to arguments over the good, the bad, and the ugly since one person's art is another's graffiti; i.e. the more complex and artsy the coin, the fewer people would be happy. Witness the furor in each state as the design for its reverse on the quarter series is argued; there's no way to please everyone.