Wanna design the 2020 Basketball HoF Commem?
BackroadJunkie
Posts: 3,745 ✭✭✭✭✭
sigh. I won't ask why there's a commemorative for an organization who hardly needs the funds, but hey, I ain't congress.
POTUS signed late last year. Yet another domed issue. As I mentioned before, I think the bloom is off the rose...
The text of the law:
H.R.1235 — 115th Congress (2017-2018)
50K gold commems (fixed at 90%)
400K Silver, at least 90% and
750K clad
No pucks, nor any other weird issues.
Anyway, the Mint has issued a design contest:
The public competition has two phases. Phase One, which is open today through April 15, 2019, calls for artists age 18 and older to submit a digital portfolio, consisting of three to five examples of their existing work. Following a review of Phase One applications by an expert panel, up to 25 entries will be selected to participate in Phase Two. During Phase Two, artists will be paid a stipend of $1,000 to submit a two-dimensional digital design for the common obverse of the coin. The Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee (CCAC) and the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts (CFA) will review the designs at their public committee meetings. After considering input from the subject matter experts at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and recommendations from the CCAC and the CFA, the Secretary of the Treasury will select one artist’s design to serve as the basis for the obverse of the coins. The same design will be used on the gold, silver, and clad coins. The final winner will be announced later this year.
You can read the press release here:
United States Mint Launches Public Design Competition for Basketball Hall of Fame Commemorative Coins
Comments
One of two... wonder what the other commem will be...
A very timely question.....
2020 is the 400th anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Mass. Bills to authorize a commem coin program have been introduced over the past few years, but so far no success. There was, of course, a 350th half in 1920.
Why do they find it interesting to use the same design on the gold, silver and clad coins?
I like basketball and I have no interest in these coins next year.
Latest legislative information from Congress.gov. There are many new commems “introduced,” some passed House or Senate but none have passed both, except the OP (which was the 115th Congress, we are now in the the 116th Congress.)
Search reference “Coin act”:
https://www.congress.gov/search?q={"source":"legislation","search":"Coin act"}&searchResultViewType=expanded
Might get (non-commem) Presidential $1 (Bush) and First Lady (Barbara) bullion for 2019(?).
There are common designs because Congress just copypasted the text of the baseball coin act. No one in Congress cares about the quality of the designs on commemorative coins, just the subjects. Quality control is the job of the CCAC and CFA.
National Baseball Hall of Fame Commemorative Coin Act
vs
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Commemorative Coin Act
Borrowed from internet and edited
http://www.pcgs.com/SetRegistry/publishedset.aspx?s=142753
https://www.autismforums.com/media/albums/acrylic-colors-by-rocco.291/
To answer the question.
No.
An innovative design for basketball will be tough without it being so obvious.
2019 is, arguably, a good year for the Mint and probably will continue through the end of 2019.
2020:
Two commems a year and the Basketball HoF commem is the first.
Possible number 2:
S1235, “Women's Suffrage Centennial Commemorative Coin Act” has passed the Senate on 4 June. Waiting on the house.
Domed or doomed?
Yes
OK. Here's my entry:
Obverse (or reverse) --- A large letter " O "
Reverse (or obverse) --- A bottle of overpriced 'Cristal' champagne.
Edge (or obverse or reverse) --- NBA rule book - complete - in small letters.
Alternate design:
Obverse --- Blank
Reverse --- Nil
Edge --- [None]
OK. I know these are challenging designs, but surely some great artist, paid the princely sum of $1,500, can execute them. (Was that a pun?)
Game note: At the end of regulation time the Head (or Tail) Referee shall be required to flip one of the commemorative coins to determine the winner of the game, regardless of the actual score.
Let's make it as ugly or unappealing as possible.
Actually, let's think outside the box. Let's put a baseball on one side and a glove on the other. And since that's already been done, let's just call the whole thing off.
Let's get together as collectors and chip in to make a donation to the Basketball Hall of Fame and skip the coin program.
RE: "...make it as ugly or unappealing as possible."
That's a "given" considering the tiny remuneration the US Mint pays for designs. Might as well be an end-of-5th-grade class project.
Never mind. Entries withdrawn. This is too easy a target for sarcasm.
How about both? Yet another commemorative which will be lost in obscurity years from now.
“I got no basketball jones,
I got no basketball Jones,
I got no basketball Jones,
Ooooh-Eeeeeeh-Ooooh!”
I did participate in the previous Baseball, WW1, and Apollo 11 design competitions. But I'm not a basketball fan, so I'm going to pass on this one.
To think that a guy came up with a minor pastime of throwing a ball into a basket, it seems absurd that such a banal activity has become what it is today. But I suppose the same thing could be said about golf, and I can actually play golf or watch golf on TV without getting too bored. So I guess I can see how some people could enjoy it as a spectator sport.
Anyway, if I was in charge of this new coin, I would make it in two parts: as an outer ring with a hole in it (the basket) and a smaller coin (made out of a different metal) that would fit in the hole (the "ball"). Put the two together and you would have a ringed bi-metallic coin. I would make it so the two parts could be easily separated. That way, you could play tiddly-winks (or whatever) with them.
Hmm... maybe I SHOULD enter ... but it appears my idea is already shot down because the dopes in Congress have already mandated the size, shape, weight, composition, denomination, and to some extent the designs of the coins.
Possibly the Treasury Department can use another gimmick, they could re-open the Carson City Mint and manufacture the entire run there.
The Mysterious Egyptian Magic Coin
Coins in Movies
Coins on Television
Maybe it could be made in Canada - after all, it was invented by Canadian James Naismith.
And if you don't think a women's commem won't pass in an election year, keep dreaming.
No problem here, I'm trying to shrink my collection. Failed with the Apollo commems, but 2020 looks good!
The Aztec's had a version, something like 3 centuries ago. Now that might make an interesting coin...
Don’t have to worry about rematches.