Can Coin Collecting Survive Awful Modern Designs?

People collect 70s era Corvettes but no one collects 70s era Chevettes. Same maker, same years, it is just a matter of personal taste. Today Ford Edsels are highly collectible but in their day were considered extremely ugly. Time and styles have a way of changing people's views. Most people would say the 80s produced no cars with much great aesthtic value but car collecting is still very much alive and well.

Look at it this way, if someone offered you a Massachusetts Colonial issued coin that simply was a round slug with a "NE" stamped in it, would you turn it down? There is nothing beautiful about it but you would accept it just the same. Collecting is more of a personal matter and what is beautiful to one is ugly to another.

well I disagree and like many of the modern commems have you ever read the contempory comments on the barber coins or the colombus halfs? they thought they were ugly in their day as well

and 9 the coin in your AV is that really that good looking heck she makes SBA look good

PLS took the words right out of my mouth...

The problem with the current Jefferson nickel is that the reverse and obverse don't match up from a design point of view. They have two completely different styles of font. And worst of all, they come from two completely different artistic periods and mindsets, with the reverse being of an early-20th-century styling and the obverse being of a ultra-modern 21st century point of view.

It's like mixing metaphors. It fails on all levels. I can't stand the mint's artistic ignorance. They have such an opportunity to make us feel good about our country through an aesthetic device. Our coin designs are supposed to directly reflect the spirit and meaning of our country. And the mint has no idea how to do it.

The shield reverse for the LHC looks like plastic play money. The Presidential dollar has all the charm of a subway token. And they come out with so many reverse designs for the quarter, it makes me think they can't decide what to do.

Their incompetence is legion, of course. They came out with the 20-cent piece in the late 19th century, and it looked almost exactly like the quarter and was almost exactly the same size. Didn't anybody there think that people might confuse the two? (They didn't and they did.) Then, 100 years later, they made the exact same mistake with the Susan B. Anthony dollars. At the time, the mint claimed people wouldn't confuse them with quarters because the inner rim of the $1 coin was lined with an 11-sided polygon, which people could tell by touch would make it feel different than a quarter.

And now, they have billions of presidential coins languishing in the vaults. Perhaps, if they found a way to make people feel excited about these coins, they'd experience more success. They need to hire a good advertising firm! And while they're at it, hire some professional sculptors to come up with compelling designs that will make us feel good about our coinage and our country.

For the record, my favorite modern design is the Roosevelt dime. It's the only modern coin that hasn't been touched since it came out. I know that may sound boring to some, but tradition does have its place.

They did. I remember dollar coin ads back in 2007:
"The Presidential dollars are real change. Use them."

People just don't like them. Simple as that. It doesn't matter if they had, say, the Buffalo nickel design on them. They still wouldn't be used.

There are going to be as many differing opinions on this subject as there are forum members. While I agree in general that modern US coinage since the clad period leaves a great deal to be desired, the artistic infusion program since the early 2000's has really infused new life into US coins, though the majority of them are seldom seen, which is unfortunate. By this I mean the changing reverses of the platinum proof coins that started in '97. They were affordable in fractional sizes, and the reverses for Vistas of America and Justice series are well thought out and expertly executed even on the 16.5mm 1/10oz. platinum. It is unfortunate that the 2009 and later designs are only available as 1oz. proofs, eroding their availability and accessibility by the general collecting public further.

The other series that's starting the shape up nicely is the America the Beautiful Quarter dollar program. The designs are pictorially uniform with some grand iconic vistas as expected, but also strikingly daring and unusual perspectives, e.g. the below the rim view of Grand Canyon, and the Civil War view of the ironclad USS Cairo on the Vicksburg design. It will be interesting to see if the artistic quality remains fresh and exciting on the other 41 designs. As to scale, the 1" quarters are sublime, if only they circulate as widely as the 50 State Quarters. In the 3" size, the designs are absolutely stunning. The 50 State Quarters are a daily reminder of how NOT to design coins, that is, by committee.

The brass $1 coins look like arcade tokens. George Washington resembles Grandpa Munster, while Van Buren resembles Larry of the 3 Stooges.

Jpsned has some interesting observations about the in/consistency of styling of more recent coinage. If you take one step back and compare US coins/currency to other countries, our mint products look rather traditional/outmoded. Well, I guess the Swiss have mroe traditional coins, but their paper money is not. The most glaring example is that recent shield cent, done in a 19th C. style, it just doesn't look right to me--it's almost cartoonish. Compare some of the ugly Presidential dollars to the really fine, original work by the designers of the first Lincoln Cent, the Standing Liberty quarter, St. Gauden's work, the winged Liberty dime...all classic designs, and contemporary to their time. Then again, I'm biased...I mostly collect coins 100+ years old.