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2009 $20 High Reliefs - Where did the idea for them come from?
291fifth
Posts: 25,238 ✭✭✭✭✭
If ever there were unnecessary coin issue this is it. Just where did the idea for this piece come from?
All glory is fleeting.
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old classic design rumored to be the mint's finest. yawn.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
<< <i>If ever there were unnecessary coin issue this is it. Just where did the idea for this piece come from. >>
I suspect someone at the Mint or Smithsonian liked the design and realized that with today's technology, striking a coin with that high a relief would not be a problem.
<< <i>If ever there were unnecessary coin issue this is it. >>
Unnecessary to anyone fortunate (i.e., rich enough) to own one of the originals, maybe. For the rest of us, it's a dream come true.
my early American coins & currency: -- http://yankeedoodlecoins.com/
The NY Times article makes some good points about “Why.” But I think the key concept from director Moy is that this piece closes the door on reuse of 100-year old designs on new coins.
The small diameter double eagle format was chosen because it was tested in Feb 1907 by the mint, but no examples exist outside of the Smithsonian (2 pieces). Thus, the modern mint could make something that no collector owned, using a classic design that most liked. It was also a way for the mint to have a second chance with Saint-Gaudens’ original designs. The mint worked with the Saint Gaudens National Historic Site and used one of the extant original plaster models as its basis for the coin. Taking a 12-inch diameter model down to 1-inch for coining while maintaining full detail is not a trivial task. Overall the new pieces are pretty close to the model – including deficiencies in the original.
(PS. I do not accept the Breenism that the mint was overwhelmingly hostile to S-G in 1907. Barber called in outside help to make the first reductions and dies. Further, the mint engraver certainly must have liked the design – he owned 8 EHR $20 (normal diameter) – or nearly half of all the ones struck.)
<< <i>Don't know if this was posted already, but too lazy to check. >>
From the linked story:
“Liberty has visited America and is now marching into the rest of the world, led by enlightenment. America’s best days are ahead.”
Then why don;t they return to the LIBERTY theme for all of America's coinage? To me, that would be the best thing Edmund C. Moy could ever do as US Mint Director! A quick call to the incoming president and with the stroke of a pen, it could all happen.
The name is LEE!