Too Few Ag Modern Commem 50¢; And Thoughts On 2016 50¢

Thanks for your thoughts commems. Yes, I can certainly appreciate that the clad halves allow younger and lower budget consumers to participate in the commemorative coin programs. I'll likely buy one next year or the year after on ebay or elsewhere when they are half the price or less of the cost from the US Mint (unless of course hardly anyone buys them in the first place and mintages are super low -- though I doubt this will happen).

I really like NPS-S-O-04, a great bold design for sure!

Even though I have never been a fan of a vast majority of the modern commemoratives I am pretty dissapointed with the 2016 National Park designs.

When I first heard that is what they were doing in 2016 I was like, excellent, here is an opportunity to put a really nice attractive 3 coin set together because the National Parks themselves have all the design inspiration they need to put on the coins. One of the reasons why I think I like a lot of the America The Beautiful coin designs because a lot of them really do showcase the beauty in the real life places they depict.

However, what we got I feel is just a mess. The reverse on the half-dollar is alright with the National Park shield, but the obverse we have two squished pictures cut in half in the middle of the coin. Who were these throngs of people who responded when asked what they would like to see on a coin depicting the national parks with, "Ooo, ooo, I want to see a kid finding a frog under a leaf! I'll spend money on that!"

Same thing with the silver dollar which in my opinion should definitely be the showcase of these sets. It's design is a mess. One side we have a dressed lady which is a little ambiguous to whether its a Native American woman or an artistic depiction of Lady Liberty and then the other side we have Old Faithful. Surely that gysure is a staple of the U.S. National Parks, but we couldn't make it look better than that? What am I looking at? A brush fire? A tree stump? A mushroom cloud? Again, who are these people that when asked the question what would you like to see on a coin commemorating the National Parks they responded, "Ooo, ooo, A dancing lady! We want a dancing lady on the National Park Coin!"

And I could rant on the gold coin design as well but you get my point I am not going to be sold on these and I think it's a shame. Big opportunity here for the mint and I don't think they really did their best on this one. I know nothing about the design process of these coins but I feel like there are decisions made on what needs to be depicted on each issue and then they send the ideas to the artists and designers to make them happen. I think it would probably be more fruitful if they just give a simple concept like "National Park Commemorative" to a group of artists and see what they come up with. I bet it would be more creative and eye appealing than these designs.

I always think it's best to understand something before attacking it.



The Public Law authorizing the National Park Service coins did not specify what the coin designs were to be. It simply stated "The design of the coins minted.shall be emblematic of the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service." The PL went on to specify that the designs selected would be in consult with the National Parks Service, the National Parks Foundation and the Commission of Fine Arts; the proposed designs were to reviewed by the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee.

As a result, quite a number of designs were developed by "a group of artists" as suggested and then the designs were reviewed by the coin sponsors as well as additional artists and members of the numismatic community before final designs were selected. Also, the design review was conducted in a public forum.