Reagan $1 Design Candidates

I'm not sure why anybody would want a coin that mostly shows the back of his head. ( I'm talking about you #4! )

I think #1 looks the most like him.

I like #3 the most.

If nothing else it'd be interesting to call something the "Carter dollar"...

I'm not a Reagan fan, but even so I have to say NONE of these do him any justice. It'd be like doing an Obama coin where the entire focus was his ears or having had Washington's coin be that one AWFUL portrait of him where all you can do is look at his mouth because it's so unnatural.

I realize this would involve not using a Presidential portrait, but surely a photo of him a few years younger from his Hollywood days could be obtained that would provide a more dignified, less "I'm only a couple of years from Alzheimer's and don't you forget it" look? (Not all the way back in the 40s, but like . . . I found some great images of him in Death Valley Days. There must be publicity shots somewhere that don't include the cowboy hat.) No President deserves to be made to look flat-out decrepit, regardless of your opinion on them. (Remember how dignitaries would be seated alongside FDR for photos so he wasn't singled out as "lower" than them? We should extend that courtesy to all our Presidents.)

If we HAD to go with one of the options above, I'd go with the third one but done in the coloring style of the last one. The finer lines won't be as dramatic on an actual coin, and will draw more attention to his actual profile than his age.

Quite apart from politics, the choice to be made is:
Which one of these images will best translate into a coin?
Mouth detail with 'face on' pictures can sometimes be hard to catch when translated into metal, but that really depends on the skill of the cealator.

Perhaps the best thing to do is make pattern dies of each, then ask us all again.
Mints usually contract empanelled artists to make these sorts of decisions. If the U.S. Mint REALLY wanted to make some money, they could auction some of the non selected master dies, with the permission that the successful bidder could be use them to strike unofficial medalettes, to the befefit of charity.
Or perhaps the Chinese will do that for us?

To my mind so far, image #2 is the best of these.
I suspect that all of these pictures were originally based on photographs, so why the line drawings? That has already depended on the skill of the artist, with varying degrees of success.

Who is on #8?

So recommendations have been made...

http://mintnewsblog.com/2015/03/cca...tial-dollar/

... and it appears that RR-01 is the winner. More than a few people agreed with you, apparently, One50.

Interesting recommendations.