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Should we have a fun medal honoring the summertime lightning bug?

RogerBRogerB Posts: 8,852 ✭✭✭✭✭
edited June 19, 2018 7:48AM in U.S. Coin Forum

OK. Why do all mint medals have to be serious? How about something fun, frivolous and identified with warm summer evenings in the south and east -- such as the humble firefly (Family: Lampyridae)

Several national parks have summertime lightning bug viewing. One of the best is at Congaree National Park, but even your own backyard can fill with the gentle greens, blues, yellows and reds of these little beetles. Here's a photo taken earlier this evening in the forest behind my house in Virginia. (60-second integrated exposure at F-4, ISO 400.)

Shall we have a firefly medal - maybe with a glowing tail?

Comments

  • MedalCollectorMedalCollector Posts: 2,037 ✭✭✭✭✭

    High relief, please!

  • IcollecteverythingIcollecteverything Posts: 1,033 ✭✭✭

    I just stood on my back deck listening to peepers, bullfrogs and owls and watching the light show literally surrounding me.

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  • SwampboySwampboy Posts: 13,165 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I would like the new firefly (lightening bug) medal to be solar powered, and it's blinking function to be irregular.

    Lets's show Palau and the Cook Islands we got game.

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  • rickoricko Posts: 98,724 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @RogerB...Great picture...Lightning Bugs are cool... Spent many hours as a kid collecting them in jars... Fun to watch on a warm summer night. Cool idea for a coin.....Cheers, RickO

  • RogerBRogerB Posts: 8,852 ✭✭✭✭✭

    As a kid, my cousin Johnny and I would catch a bunch of lightning bugs, then use scissors to cut off the glowing tails. We'd mash this in a bowl, smear the green glowing stuff on our fingers, and chase the girl cousins around the yard. Those we caught, were left with green streaks on their dresses.

  • 1630Boston1630Boston Posts: 14,115 ✭✭✭✭✭

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  • KkathylKkathyl Posts: 3,762 ✭✭✭✭✭

    NO light up not a good idea

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  • bronco2078bronco2078 Posts: 10,425 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I would put a battery in it and put a button on it that if pressed gives the holder a zap.

  • SmudgeSmudge Posts: 9,873 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Swampboy said:
    I would like the new firefly (lightening bug) medal to be solar powered, and it's blinking function to be irregular.

    Lets's show Palau and the Cook Islands we got game.

    Or Canada.

  • AUandAGAUandAG Posts: 24,992 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Only visiting the midwest and east has not let me view these little critters. Would love to have them here in the desert. Would be a wonderful addition to our clear dark night skies.

    bob :)

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  • BillJonesBillJones Posts: 35,070 ✭✭✭✭✭

    That's one thing I miss. You guys up north get lighting bugs. Here in Florida we get love bugs. :s

    Retired dealer and avid collector of U.S. type coins, 19th century presidential campaign medalets and selected medals. In recent years I have been working on a set of British coins - at least one coin from each king or queen who issued pieces that are collectible. I am also collecting at least one coin for each Roman emperor from Julius Caesar to ... ?
  • BuffaloIronTailBuffaloIronTail Posts: 7,577 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Sure. Why not? I'm in one of those "lucky" places where we get lightning bugs every year. (Northwest Indiana). It wouldn't be Summer without them for me.

    Those little guys are some of the friendliest and well mannered insects around. They don't bark and they don't bite.
    Best of all, they twinkle up the night.

    Pete

    "I tell them there's no problems.....only solutions" - John Lennon
  • RogerBRogerB Posts: 8,852 ✭✭✭✭✭

    "Those little guys are some of the friendliest and well mannered insects around. They don't bark and they don't bite."

    But they sure stink when smushed. (Predators associate the light with bad taste, too. Maybe those "predator" movies should have featured a hero lightning bug....?)

  • derrybderryb Posts: 37,987 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @BillJones said:
    That's one thing I miss. You guys up north get lighting bugs. Here in Florida we get love bugs. :s

    and skeeters

    If you understand what is coming, then you can duck. If not, then you get sucker-punched. - Martin Armstrong

  • WillieBoyd2WillieBoyd2 Posts: 5,312 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited June 19, 2018 3:57PM

    I grew up in California where we do not have lightning bugs or snow.

    :)

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  • BuffaloIronTailBuffaloIronTail Posts: 7,577 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @WillieBoyd2 said:
    I grew up in California where we do not have lightning bugs or snow.

    :)

    One of the pluses for residing in the Midwest.

    Pete

    "I tell them there's no problems.....only solutions" - John Lennon
  • Will1960Will1960 Posts: 76 ✭✭✭

    N.E. Ohio here.
    'Mine' started their display several days ago.
    I have a lot of woods and enjoy sitting out and viewing them.

  • JimnightJimnight Posts: 10,846 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Sure.. why not.

  • messydeskmessydesk Posts: 20,484 ✭✭✭✭✭

    They glow for quite a while when they splatter on your windshield.

  • PerryHallPerryHall Posts: 47,086 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @BuffaloIronTail said:

    @WillieBoyd2 said:
    I grew up in California where we do not have lightning bugs or snow.

    :)

    One of the pluses for residing in the Midwest.

    Pete

    In many parts of the country snow is a four letter word. :#

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  • RogerBRogerB Posts: 8,852 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Any proposed designs out there?

  • topstuftopstuf Posts: 14,803 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Would this one BEE appropriate?

  • WinLoseWinWinLoseWin Posts: 1,778 ✭✭✭✭✭

    To answer the title question: Absolutely, as long as it is proposed by someone who I politically agree with then it is a great Idea that should be praised.

    Now, if it is suggested by someone that I politically disagree with, then it is the dumbest idea ever and I will post snide comments about their stupidity. (Additionally nitpicking spelling and grammar while botching it myself.)

    Just human nature, and if you disagree with that, then you deserve a litany of snide insults. But I will probably just yell them at the screen. (Which I have been doing anyway as it's easier and the screen doesn't talk back.) >:)

    .
    .
    .

    @RogerB said:
    Any proposed designs out there?

    .
    .
    .
    .
    The above design, featuring a bee, could be one perspective to start from. Though I am partial to one with a windshield showing glowing blobs and streaks.
    .

    "To Be Esteemed Be Useful" - 1792 Birch Cent --- "I personally think we developed language because of our deep need to complain." - Lily Tomlin

  • RogerBRogerB Posts: 8,852 ✭✭✭✭✭

    :)

  • oldabeintxoldabeintx Posts: 2,583 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I wouldn't be at all surprised to see this from one of the more "creative" mints.

  • ms70ms70 Posts: 13,957 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @oldabeintx said:
    I wouldn't be at all surprised to see this from one of the more "creative" mints.

    They should make the wings tiny little solar panels and at night the bug glows.

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  • koynekwestkoynekwest Posts: 10,048 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I read that they are in decline in many parts of the country. How sad.

    I have a near complete set of those honeybee coins in high grade.

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