What is the worst US Mint offering you've seen in the last 20 years
Golden1
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I'm putting the American Liberty 225th Anniversary Silver Four-Medal Set at the top of the list.
Horrid design, worst eagle ever put on a medal, way overpriced!
If you can think of a worse coin/medal, post it here.
Edit: I hope I did not offend anyone here that purchased this set, this is only my opinion. Beauty is in the eye, especially in numismatic coins.
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Are we just going by design? If so, this gets my vote.
The presidential dollar series was a disaster as well, especially when people started scamming the mint to get free credit card points. Presidents no one even really remembers were given a place on our coinage. When everyone is on a coin it doesn't make it so special to be on one.
Yep, that one is pretty awful, however it is still legal tender.
I thought the 1997 FDR five dollar gold was inappropriate, in a historical sense, although nicely designed. They must have been snot-faced drunk when they decided to place FDR on a gold coin!
Since the late 1990s, most (but not all) of the modern commemoratives $0.50-1.00-5.00 have had stupid subject matter and pedestrian (at best) designs. The outside 'artistic infusion' program generally hasn't improved the situation.
And yes, agreed, the Wyoming quarter dollar is a real pup.
Are you talking about the worst thing authorized by Congress that the Mint had to produce,
or the worst marketing option (such as a special finish) chosen by the Mint to sell more product?
Investment/marketing aside, just post what you think is the most hideous design, include finish if you like. The worst product , coin, or medal ever produced by the US Mint.
So many modern commems to choose from...........
A little over 20 years but this is my favorite for worst design
Yes, but it was true to the subject matter. As far as original designs, I am leaning towards the USO dollar obverse.
Prezie Dollars whole series.
Tough assignment!
Alice Paul was a huge disappointment in an ill-conceived series. They blew an opportunity to add one to the special Liberty subset that produced the most attractive and interesting issues.
Here's a warning parable for coin collectors...
That is a God awful gold coin!
If they had put an image of Mr. Bob Hope on that USO coin, they could have sold five million pieces. A real missed opportunity.
Maybe this post needs to be broken up into subsets? Authorized and not
http://www.coinnews.net/2017/01/17/president-obama-receives-medals-replicas-available-for-public/
Insert witicism here. [ xxx ]
Very fitting, replica metals to commemorate a replica president
Presidential dollars hands down.
The gold Kennedy halves were sure a bust ... for me, at least. I love(d) Kennedy halves (too much) but took a bath by getting four 69s and one 70 back from our host.
Kind regards,
George
I feel there are some good portraits in this series. Van Buren, Taft, Harding, Truman and Eisenhower (IMHO, best image of Eisenhower that the Mint has ever produced out of very many trys).
The poor Adamses, Lincoln, Grant, Kennedy, LBJ and Nixon got pronged, big time.
It is hard to think that humanity could ever lose track of who served as POTUS, but still the series may be of value to historians and students in the very long run.
The $100 Gold coin with oversized stars on Liberty.
The whole First Lady series was a close second. The gold coins were very expensive, and most of women did not do enough in their lives to rate a commemative coin.
As the presidential dollars, I could not even get face value for some very nice Mint State examples in my local club auction. As a dealer I found that the presidential dollar Proof sets virtually unsalable for much above face value. Most collectors simply don't care for them.
I'm changing my vote to dpoole's pick because not only is the Alice Paul coin pointless and terrible but it represents the loss of what could've been a great liberty subset.
The Indian cent obverse design on a $10 gold peice for example. cries
And this is coming from someone who totally supports women's rights and the bulls**** they had to go through in the early 20th century to get equality.
Prez bucks-they look like gas station tokens.
Some of gas station tokens looked better. The Lincoln portrait on the presidential Dollar could have gone the cover of "Lincoln, the Vampire Hunter."
I beg to differ, but the Wyoming state quarter is my favorite. It reminds me and makes me think of so very, very much. I guess you had to be there.
And.....the worst, in my opinion? Too many to count. But, the worst of the worst? Hands down, the Ronald Reagan presidential dollar. He looks like a chimpanzee. Think "Bedtime with Bonzo." I'm convinced it was an inside joke-conspiracy within the mint design crew. Shame on everyone involved. I never voted for him but he deserved better than that rotten portrait. When I look back on it all, I should have voted for him. What was I thinking?
The Wyoming quarter looks like a token, not a well designed American coin. And the other quarter that I really dislike is that MOUNDS one from this year. Yechhhhhhh... and of course that one has to be included in the EU set.
Capitol Visitors Center commems, anyone? This thread made my break out my Red Book and look at 20 years of commems. Some nasty stuff in there. The Girl Scout one is also pretty bad.
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The designers did it to Nixon worse (doesn't even look like him), but they weren't very kind to LBJ either (no resemblance) - so maybe it was the professional incompetence which transcends left versus right politics.
Can you believe that it took two "artists" to design the reverse of the Capital Visitors Center Half Dollar?
The obverse was not much better. When I saw this coin, I thought that it was damaged. The symbolism is that only the Senate or House chamber (I forget which) had been built, and the rest of the Capitol was yet come.
There are just to many to choose just one imho.
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While I dislike the 2017 medals that were mentioned, I was smart enough not to buy them.
So, my vote would likely go to one I bought, as I was getting back into coins, and really didn't know better....
The SHQ/Stamp combos. I bought them. Then the mint CANCELLED them before finishing the entire series.
Talk about a total waste of money
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I have to put the 50SQ jewelry and spoons in there.
I wish I had bought a couple of those spoons just to prove they existed once...
Which one? The individual cards or the yearly 5 coin/stamp cards?
They did issue all 50 in both sets. (I have both sets. Yeah, FSQ bites me again.) They didn't do the last 6, but they really aren't states, and they didn't issue stamps for the district/territories.
Good question.
He did say mint "offering", which I assume are both. After all congress didn't have anything to do with the American Liberty series.
I assumed it was the latter.
I say the Secretary of Treasury Bronze token takes the cake. When unelected burecats spend taxpayer money for self portrait. Really sick stuff
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I think I see three sets of initials. Two artists and their supervisor? None of them were skilled enough to be part of the obverse design team.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
The prezzies and the hags were obviously a PC effort and absolutely horrible... The SBA as a circulating dollar was ugly. Until the Mint gets rid of the PC committee designs and commissions real art for coins, we are doomed to mediocrity. Cheers, RickO
Are there any newer mintage coins that even compare to the old classic designs?
The US mint sure has put out a lot of modern stinkers.
Classic designs rule!
I wonder if 4th and 5th century Romans said the same thing (CLASSICS RVLE).
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
I didn't hit the disagree button, but I do tend to disagree.
The persons holding the office of Secretary of the Treasury are of great historical interest, and many Secretaries have been involved in momentous political and financial decisions in the history of our American Republic.
The office itself goes all the way back to the start of the Republic, when it was held by Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton's general vision of what our nation should become has rather trumped the vision(s) of all of the other Founding Fathers.
Of the remaining lot. Andrew W. Mellon was hugely important in the prosperity of the 1920s and then he took numerous actions which made the Great Depression much much worse.
Additionally, very few of the men holding this office have been paupers, and very few were career bureaucrats.
The sculptors and engravers at the Mint are already hired, the equipment is already there, why not use them and it? Possibly doesn't cost ten thousand dollars in additional money.
If you dwell upon the lost money, you need to know about the huge one-time income tax break that the Secretary of the Treasury gets when taking office. They are expected to re-arrange their personal affairs and investments to minimize any potential conflicts of interest while they hold office, and they are given a real sweetheart tax break to do so.
I guess it depends on which classic design.. not all were exactly lookers.
My fav recent designs..
I agree with the Cap'n.
There are just so many wasted opportunities and bad designs it is really tough to pick just one.
I don't recall seeing the later ones for the actual states.
Mine are boxed away, so I don't recall where it stopped, from what I thought, but I think it our last ones were ~2003.
Did both individual and yearly I think.
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@billdugan1959 I see your point but I think that we should have time between when they serve and when the token is issued and perhaps it should be a nomination process based on the service and deeds. It just seems like a Hollywood move of self applauding. But you gave me something to think about and for that I am grateful.
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@Kkathyl
The issuance of a medal for the Secretary of the Treasury is a long tradition.
Choosing who gets a medal based on merit is damn near impossible. I could and will give some illustrations but I am not really trying to make a political statement.
The men who hold the office are mere mortals and are sometimes venial. Paul H. O'Neill was fired by the Bushes, but many people thought highly of his candor and honesty. President Eisenhower wanted to replace Richard Nixon as Vice President with Treasury Secretary Robert B. Anderson, but long after leaving office Anderson was convicted of tax evasion and illegal banking activities. More recently, not many people thought very highly of Secretary Timothy Geithner (Geithner was one of the few career bureaucrats to be promoted this high). The list can go on for much longer than this, but it shows that 'merit' is often in the eyes of the beholder and that merit can be a fleeting thing.
So, what do you do? Simply, you honor them all. The gentlemen were there and they served the Republic. These men got the nod from the POTUS and were supposedly thoroughly vetted by the Senate before it gave its approval. The medal adds to the historical record of the times in which it was issued. The creation and production of the medal is a mere blip in the Mint's workload.
The quarter that was issued for, I think, the District of Colombia and had Louis Armstrong on it. The design was o.k. but I felt the subject rather....odd. A piano player on a U.S. coin? Perhaps it should score points for being a dramatic break from tradition, still, personally, I found it to be.....odd. Think Elvis on the Tennessee quarter. Just..odd.
@Hydrant
No, it was Duke Ellington, and yes, I believe that it violated the design guidelines that had been laid down years earlier. But three other individuals were featured on prior statehood quarters.
Louis Armstrong would have been a decent choice for the Louisiana Quarter and indeed, there is a trumpet on that coin.
A great many collectors have admired the Dolly Madison Dollar.
And the Christopher Columbus $5 gold was a good design.
As some of the Classic designs, here is a coin that is both expensive and unattractive in my opinion.
It would be easier to name the good ones......NONE. There hasn't been anything good since the 40's.