Facial aesthetics of seated liberty design.

bluelobster

Maybe it's just me, but while I like the basic design of the seated series and I know many consider it to be one of the more attractive coins made by the US mint...I think the facial and head aesthetics of liberty are one the the homeliest in all of US coinage history, even including the obverse of the less than attractive Washington dollar. Thomas Sully did the art work and the sketches for the obverse , but Gobrecht was the engraver, so I'm not sure who had more impact in the final creation of the dies.

anyone else have thoughts on this subject?

tradedollarnut

I haven't set them side by side, but it seems to me that each denomination looks different - I would tend to agree with you on the smaller denominations, but not on the larger ones.

I wouldn't bet against a Liberty Seated specialist correctly identifying the denomination just from a head shot of Liberty!

Longacre

I posted a thread about one review of the design commenting on how twisted and unnatural Liberty's pose is on the coin. The words that he used to describe it were priceless.

Cladiator

Some of the seated half dimes have, well, interesting faces you could say.

mgoodm3

Small denoms tend to have a big nose.

bluelobster

<< <i>I haven't set them side by side, but it seems to me that each denomination looks different - I would tend to agree with you on the smaller denominations, but not on the larger ones.

I wouldn't bet against a Liberty Seated specialist correctly identifying the denomination just from a head shot of Liberty! >>



tradedollarnut, you are correct about there being some variations in the different denominations. Here are some examples:
Dollar

Half

Quarter

Dime


I would say the quarter facial/head aesthetics looks the best IMHO