Home U.S. Coin Forum

The inspiration for the Washington Quarter.

keetskeets Posts: 25,351 ✭✭✭✭✭

Do you think John Flanagan may have been influenced by the 5 lira coin from Italy??

Al H.

Comments

  • DavideoDavideo Posts: 1,363 ✭✭✭✭

    If he was, he certainly improved the design, in my opinion.

  • HallcoHallco Posts: 3,684 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @keets said:
    Do you think John Flanagan may have been influenced by the 5 lira coin from Italy??

    Al H.


    Adding a photo for anyone not familiar with the reverse design! ;)

  • rickoricko Posts: 98,724 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Certainly some similarity Al.... but I am not an art expert so really not qualified to advance an opinion. I do like the Washington eagle better though... Cheers, RickO

  • DIMEMANDIMEMAN Posts: 22,403 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @ricko said:
    Certainly some similarity Al.... but I am not an art expert so really not qualified to advance an opinion. I do like the Washington eagle better though... Cheers, RickO

    Me too.

  • keetskeets Posts: 25,351 ✭✭✭✭✭

    by a strange coincidence, there are a few other minor Italian coins which came into production around 1936 with the same reverse....................except that the Eagle's head faces in the other direction!! interesting.

  • RogerBRogerB Posts: 8,852 ✭✭✭✭✭

    No. It was a last moment substitution for the family of eagles on his original design. Eagle with lowered wing tips is extremely common in Western iconography. More likely to have come from a reference to Laura Fraser's superior design.

  • HigashiyamaHigashiyama Posts: 2,284 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Notice, symbolically, in the Italian version, the eagle is perched on the fasces.

    Higashiyama
  • HallcoHallco Posts: 3,684 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited July 27, 2019 6:01PM

    I wonder if the Italian design was inspired by A Weinman?

  • keetskeets Posts: 25,351 ✭✭✭✭✭

    More likely to have come from a reference to Laura Fraser's superior design.

    indeed. it's sort of interesting that what was supposed to be a one-year Commemorative ended up being an Immortal design of lesser beauty that morphed, strangely, into the intended "Commemorative" almost 70 year later. add to that the fact that it also appears headed for Immortality as a Commemorative.

    in the meantime, the much better and beautiful design, IMHO, by Laura Gardin Fraser finally found justice as a $5 Gold Commemorative at precisely the same time the Washington Quarter reverted to that status.

    how weird is that?? :o

Leave a Comment

BoldItalicStrikethroughOrdered listUnordered list
Emoji
Image
Align leftAlign centerAlign rightToggle HTML viewToggle full pageToggle lights
Drop image/file