The difficulty in rendering the Human face on coins and medals.
keets
Posts: 25,351 ✭✭✭✭✭
I don't think much is stated about how difficult it can be to present an attractive, fully detailed and accurate representation of the Human face on coins and medals, especially on the limited "canvas" that coinage allows. Quite often when I am viewing items that have a profile the face will be pleasant, but when looking at a full-front image it can be the opposite. It may be sacrilege to say so, but I find almost all of our most cherished of designs, $20 Saints, to be lacking in this regard. My suspicion is that there is so much detail which needs to be rendered within about 1/8 of an inch in diameter that the reduction is near impossible when making the dies. Added to that is the fact that Ms. Liberty's lovely face is near the rim and her poor, poor nose is the highest part of the detail, it suffers accordingly.
I believe that the $20's are 34mm and an increase in size on medals to 40 or even 50mm gives really good results and very nice definition of facial features. For my benefit and that of all members can someone/anyone please post pictures of a $20 Saint with a fully struck face, no flat nose or ugly hits, to show the intended full detail?? Also, any other coins with close-up views??
Thanks in advance.
--- as a side-note, I noticed this morning that actress Peggy Lipton had died. I present her beauty for reference.
Al H.
Comments
Profiles usually work better on coins than three-quarters and full face portraits. Getting the full face portraits to work, even on high relief medals is not often seen.
The reason why I overpaid for this Winston Churchhill medal was because of the wonderful portrait.
that is a good example, Bill, what's the diameter.
The Proof example in the calendar this month is quite nice.
https://www.pcgs.com/coinfacts/coin/1909-20/9206/67
Collector, occasional seller
yes, that is a nice example. unfortunately it is a Proof so I would expect a full strike.
My personal creed:
Eagles not faces.
That motto works in all walks of life.
After a few hundred years:
Byzantine Justinian (AD 527-565) AE Follis
Bronze, 30mm, 17.98gm
Struck: AD 527-538 Constantinople
The Mysterious Egyptian Magic Coin
Coins in Movies
Coins on Television
@keets...I believe your analysis is spot on....In general, coins are too small to provide adequate relief for facial features....I have a Winston Churchill medal like the example Bill Jones has shown... and that size allows for proper detail. Just look at the Jefferson nickel... the difference between the profile and the frontal view... disaster. Cheers, RickO
Lady liberty having a perfect face is really a big issue for me.
For a date set, It's not that hard to find other than 1912, 1920, 1921 & 4 of the fab 5 (nice faces on almost all 1930-S I've seen)
For us "non-5-figure" collectors the 1912 & 1920 are really frustrating.
They require a special kind of obsession to find a nice one.
(My 1912 has a bit of a flat nose but looks quite nice in hand)
TrueView often distortes the left side of her face and makes the nose look crooked.
Common MS66 coins like the 1927 below are a nice place to look for a clean face that can be had inexpensively.
My Saint Set
Have you ever seen eyelashes & a perfect iris/pupil on the face of any other coin?
This one has my vote for most beautiful profile of all time.
Enlarge one of these up to pie-plate size and the strike will still look fantastic.
My Saint Set
hey, the only Gold coins I own are Roosters and Angels, 20 Francs. if I can ever find nice unc. 50 Francs from around 1900 at melt..................
You mean poor Susie B’s forehead doesn’t really look like that??
It has always been challenging and I think it's because of the "uncanny valley". We're social creatures and we care immensely about the accuracy of faces.
Here's one of the best facing portraits on Greek coinage of the god Apollo. It's rare to see a successful execution at an angle and this is a unique example engraved by a particularly good artist.
Taking a 2D photograph of this coin doesn't really do it justice and it still looks a bit "off", although it isn't nearly as bad as others from the era.
This was one of several problems Anthony Paquet had in designing coins.
Yea.............and the low relief on the Sacajawea Dollars makes the baby look like it's growing out of her neck.
Pete
I've found that young adults with relatively smooth faces are the most difficult to sculpt, especially with a frontal orientation.
Here is one of my attempts on an older gentleman:
The lines and wrinkles in the face actually help in sculpting a portrait that looks like the intended person.
Here is a smoother face that was actually more difficult:
Original Photo:
Digital Sculpture:
Struck Piece (28mm silver):
