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Have you actually looked at the Mark Twain Commem??
keets
Posts: 25,351 ✭✭✭✭✭
With all the grief we direct at the US Mint and the designs of the products they release I think we should make note of when they "Get It Right" with a coin. They did that with the 2016 Mark Twain Dollar, IMHO. If you can get your hands on one of the Proof issues check it out.
Al H.
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keets:
Apparently not many others have looked at the Mark Twain dollar. I just got one yesterday and I agree with you: It's a nice job by the mint.
Mark
They sort of got it right. One thing I don't think they did that well was Twain's face. The bristly moustache and eyebrows need to be on a more crusty, weathered face of a cantankerous curmudgeon with a crazy story to tell, not one of a far younger man. His visage looks more like someone wearing a disguise.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars
.......................but he didn't always look like your mental picture of him.
No, but even in that picture, he has wrinkles not rendered on the coin, and the grain in the image hides some of those. There are other pictures of him as a younger person. The bushy eyebrows are only on the late pictures, and in general aren't associated with youth, which I guess contributes to the portrait on the dollar being confusing. The portrait on the $5 is a bit better at showing age.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars
The gold $5 is one of my favorite commems of the past few years...
2016 Mark Twain Commems (16CL, 16CK, 16CJ, 16CH)
Sales have been miserable, though. Not as miserable as the NPS commem, but pretty bad.
I have to side with keets on this one. I rarely buy modern commems but being an author myself and also from Missouri, wanted to own this one. Upon receipt (of a proof) I was very impressed by both the design and the execution of it. I really admire this particular coin and think it is one of the finest works the Mint has put out in some time. Just my 2 cents.
Tom Sawyer. Huckleberry Finn. Don't care about the coins.
this picture is similar to the coin image. the wrinkle issue is a cop-out, if you look at the coin you can see wrinkles in all the appropriate places!! but, hey, if you don't like US Mint products I won't try to change your mind. this is a nice one for me.
He is a distant relative of my. By marriage on my wife's side.
Sorry...to me it's the same ole stuff from the mint.....not for me.
I bought a set ($1, $5) for myself and one for my nephew whose birthday is (also) November 30.
Mark twain coins mint sales figures as of October 16, 2016:
Commemoratives 16CH 2016 MARK TWAIN GOLD PROOF - 12402
Commemoratives 16CJ 2016 MARK TWAIN GOLD UNC - 5348
Commemoratives 16CK 2016 MARK TWAIN SILVER PROOF - 72544
Commemoratives 16CL 2016 MARK TWAIN SILVER UNC - 24518
From:
https://competition.usmint.gov/cumulative-sales-figures
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Purchased the Mark Twain proof at The Money Museum this summer during our first trip with our grand daughters. When you see the coin in hand, imagine most will make the purchase.
Remembered every book of his that I read as a youth.
FYI - Teddy Roosevelt 5 oz silver is another of my favorites this year as well!!!!!!
I agree with keets.... it is a great coin and one of the U.S. Mints better renderings.
@keets.... I love that quote... it is particularly pertinent since I am married to a Redhead....
Cheers, RickO
Am a fan of the $5 gold, but the silver dollar looks a bit busy to me. Here is the $5 gold.
And here is the dollar for those who are not familiar with these coins.
No offense intended, nor comparison; but at least Susan B Anthony did her hair and eyebrows.
While I like them both, I favor the silver coin... Cheers, RickO
I like both the silver and the gold coins, and I too prefer the silver.
U.S. Type Set
Bill, I think the "busy-ness" of the Silver stems from the size of the portrait. the Gold coin is really just too small for much of anything. with the Silver, I really like the imaginative way the artist used the pipe smoke to give us the raft silhouetted by the moon; classic and relating to the "smokers" vivid imagination.
that imagination is depicted on the reverse nicely, a Connecticut Yankee, the Caleveras Bullfrog and Huck Finn with Jim all pour out of the pages that Samuel Clemens wrote. nice!!
Nope. Don't do modern.
beautiful, I prefer the gold.
That would be cool on a 1 oz $50!
Portrait looks like a cartoon, as if Mark Twain were a celebrity guest on Scooby Doo. It might as well be an image of old time comedian Jerry Colonna.
hey thanks for pointing the Twain coin out....I had never noticed them, like them and now I have one headed to my house....$49 for an PCGS ms 69..... cheap enuff