should we leave old classic designs alone?

Geoman

I don't feel we should mess with any of the old coin designs. Granted, we can not change the past, but I feel we should not bring back any of the old designs for new coins designs. I have read many articles, several in Numismatic News, and even some treads here about it. Arguments state that it may revive and help out our hobby. However, I feel that it could hurt our hobby.

For example, bringing back the Barber design, or maybe the Bust Half design, could make the older series not as desirable. If they redesign the current Kennedy Half Dollar, and redo it with the Bust Half design, will not some of the prestige, or excitement, or rareness, etc. wear off on the older Bust Half series, as people start to collect the new resigned Bust Half series. The older coins are classics, and bringing some of the design elements back would partly ruin the uniqueness of some of these series'.

I am in favor of new coin designs however, just not reusing older designs. Let's push for some totally "new" design concepts on any future coin designs.

What do you think?

Aaron04

I agree that the old designs should be left alone.I think they never should have used the $20 Saint and WL for the bullion coins.Now they have used the buffalo also.

MrKelso

And i believe we will one day come full circle with reusing the classic designs. It seems our designers have no imaginations like the old timers did.

coppercoins

I would hope they could leave well enough alone. The old designs are beautiful, but they've been used. Let's move on to something else with artistic merit.

the #1 problem with trying to use beautiful designs any more is the minting process itself. With current methods, it's not possible to gain the relief required for the beauty the old designs have. As long as our coins have low relief flat designs, the depth of the third dimension that makes the oldies so beautiful can never again be achieved. We "need" the mint to drop this "extended die life" crap and go back to multiple hubbing deep-dish designs so we can have a little feeling in our coinage. Of course that will likely never happen because of monetary constraints.

Truthfully, even some of our current designs could be made more attractive if they'd just soften the designs a little and deepen the relief.

lordmarcovan

<< <i>Should we leave old classic designs alone? >>



YES!!!!!!




<< <i>Truthfully, even some of our current designs could be made more attractive if they'd just soften the designs a little and deepen the relief. >>



Hmm. Interesting. I hadn't thought about it, but I suppose that is one big difference in the way a modern coin looks, versus some of the classics.

khayse

Leave the past in the past.

-KHayse

stujoe

I couldn't agree more with coppercoins. Can you imagine a low relief, spaghetti haired Buffalo nickle or Mercury dime? Yech!

Look what they have done to poor old Abe over the years, and George too. The Jefferson and Roosevelts also, although not quite as bad as the other two, are not what they used to be.

Commemoratives like the Buffalo Dollar are not as bad an idea because the mint does not have to mess wth the design as much as they do for something that is going to be minted in the hundreds of millions or billions.

nwcs

Classic designs should be left alone. They don't work on clad coins. Especially with the finishes and strikes the mint uses these days. Ruins a good thing.

Conder101

Stujoe,

Pull out one of those Buffalo dollars and compare it side by side with an equal sized enlargemnet of a bufalo nickel and I think you will see where they made MANY changes to the design that have rendered it a cheap imitation of the original. Fraser would not have been pleased with what they did to his design. And die life was not an issue here because this was a limited mintage item, not a mass produced coin.

I think they should leave the old designs alone too. To reuse them is to admit that our country can no longer match the artistry of a hundred years ago and that is sad. (Maybe we can't, as our coinage seems to show, but why come right out and admit our failures?)

66Tbird

"spaghetti haired",,,,,,,, got that one right. For me it took the nice out of the the later Kennedys (sorry Russ). Higher relief is what I would like to see in the proofs anyways. A SHRP (special high relief proof) of any classic would sell great as a modern commem IMO.