Do you remember this from the Bicentennial coin design competition?

RogerB

A current numismatic event - more than 40 years ago.

coindeuce

I've heard unfounded rumors that JJP was the person responsible for getting approval for the design that Ahr submiited.
He was the immediate past President of the A.N.A. at the time.

291fifth

Golly, Batman! It looks like we have another "baseball" commemorative situation.

How did this one end?

CaptHenway

I recall that there was some suggestion that the designs were too similar, but I also recall that many people felt that a drummer image was rather generic.

TomB

The idea that the drummer was a generic symbol is what I recall, as well. Still, seeing the image gives me a real feeling of nostalgia.

ricko

I did not hear about this.... oh yeah, I was living outside the U.S. at the time.... Was the resolution that it was a generic image?? Cheers, RickO

WinLoseWin

@CaptHenway said:
I recall that there was some suggestion that the designs were too similar, but I also recall that many people felt that a drummer image was rather generic.

.
.
I was not familiar with this controversy. I would have assumed it was a generic image issue also.

But when I searched "colonial drummer" on google images, could not find anywhere near the similarities that seem to appear between the stamp and the coin.

Unless there is some older image I missed that both could have been based on, there are a lot of comparable angles, positions, and styles that just don't match as close to any other images seen. There are some minor differences, most visible in the drumsticks. The rest seems a surprisingly close match. The stamp designer's claim in the letter might have been right.

Just try to find any other image nearly as close. Now seems to me much like the 1992 Olympic dollar baseball commemorative situation that @291fifth mentioned above (matched almost exactly one particular photo on a baseball card).

.
.