Options
What do you think is the UGLIEST U.S. Coin ever made?? Commemoratives excluded!
keepdachange
Posts: 1,374
Without a doubt... Susan B. Anthony
"If you hit a midget on the head with a stick, he turns into 40 gold coins." - Patty Oswalt
0
Comments
Many members on this forum that now it cannot fit in my signature. Please ask for entire list.
<< <i>Eunice makes Susan B look like a goddess, but commems are excluded. >>
Guess I went over the top....sorry Eunice.
Chuck
But, there must be a whole lot of closet collectors out there because they are
still popular
Stefanie
.
CoinsAreFun Toned Silver Eagle Proof Album
.
Gallery Mint Museum, Ron Landis& Joe Rust, The beginnings of the Golden Dollar
.
More CoinsAreFun Pictorials NGC
If it ain't about the money lord knows i've gone insane
Abigail Adams Woof Woof
<< <i>Did you forget Eunice???
>>
Positive BST Transactions (buyers and sellers): wondercoin, blu62vette, BAJJERFAN, privatecoin, blu62vette, AlanLastufka, privatecoin
#1 1951 Bowman Los Angeles Rams Team Set
#2 1980 Topps Los Angeles Rams Team Set
#8 (and climbing) 1972 Topps Los Angeles Rams Team Set
<< <i>Did you forget Eunice???
>>
Wait! Thats a woman?
<< <i>
<< <i>Did you forget Eunice???
>>
Wait! Thats a woman? >>
The Kennedys just don't age gracefully
Positive BST Transactions (buyers and sellers): wondercoin, blu62vette, BAJJERFAN, privatecoin, blu62vette, AlanLastufka, privatecoin
#1 1951 Bowman Los Angeles Rams Team Set
#2 1980 Topps Los Angeles Rams Team Set
#8 (and climbing) 1972 Topps Los Angeles Rams Team Set
Now the Roosevelt Dime, while not ugly is dull. Perhaps the dullest circulating coin produced by the US.
(Just think of city streets clogged with a hundred thousand horses each generating 15 lbs of manure every day...)
I actually don't think the SBA is so bad, actually.
Chuck
<< <i>Yeah, but the other side is a whole New Deal!
Chuck >>
Oi!
<< <i>The presidential dollars and many of the state quarters are quite, shall we say, are not the most beautiful of US coins.
I actually don't think the SBA is so bad, actually. >>
The state quarters are technically commems.
Franklin-Lover's Forum
<< <i>
<< <i>The presidential dollars and many of the state quarters are quite, shall we say, are not the most beautiful of US coins.
I actually don't think the SBA is so bad, actually. >>
The state quarters are technically commems. >>
All of our circulating coins are technically commemoratives. The last non-commemorative design in circulation was the 1947 half.
Franklin-Lover's Forum
Franklin-Lover's Forum
<< <i>Without a doubt... Susan B. Anthony >>
I agree ten times over!
<< <i>
<< <i>
<< <i>Did you forget Eunice???
>>
Wait! Thats a woman? >>
The Kennedys just don't age gracefully
>>
I can't help but imagine that whoever the poor sucker was that was tasked with designing this coin took one look at this picture and, sigh, thought "what the hell am I suppose to do with this?"
Considering the raw material he had to work from the coin looks AWESOME!!!
**WINNER**Lordmarcovan's "2008 Most Righteous Giver-Away of Good Loot Award"
Butt Ugly
Susan B Anthony is hot !
I thought Flying Eagle Cents were the easiest set to complete!
My Adolph A. Weinman signature
For pure frumpiness, the Matron Head large cent is probably one of the ugliest business-issue US coins. What possessed them to go from the graceful and lovely Draped Bust designs to the homely Classic Heads and downright dumpy Matron Heads is beyond me. Fashions change, though, and what might have seemed progressive at the time seems like a backwards step to us now.
Don't get me wrong. I love early large cents, even the Classic Heads and Matron Heads I just maligned.
But you have to put things in proper perspective- the age and history and numismatic appeal of such coins buys them respect we wouldn't otherwise give them. (Don't get me started on some of the colonial issues- crude, primitive, and downright hideous, some of them- but oh-so beautiful to a collector!)
Picture the Matron Head design vis-a-vis the SBA design and switch 'em around- let's hypothetically say the SBA design was produced in the early 1800s and the Matron Head was a modern issue. You know everybody would say the Matron Head was the ugliest thing ever made and the SBA would get more respect. They really aren't that ugly. Unexciting, perhaps, but ugly? Not really.
To truly judge the designs, you have to detach your mind from the numismatic value or historical appeal of the coins, because there are plenty of coins with rather hideous designs that are beloved today by collectors.
Take the Chain cent, for example. Who amongst us would not love to own a Chain cent, or do, and cherish the ones do own?
But look outside the numismatic appeal for a moment. There was contemporary criticism of the Chain cent which alluded to the "frightened looking" Liberty on one side and how the chain on the other side was a poor choice since it was emblematic of slavery. Chain cents get lots of respect as collectibles, but they are rather ugly and could have been better conceived. Nevertheless, we had to start somewhere with our coinage, and the ugliness of the Chain cents just adds character.
My favorite design on a US coin is the Panama-Pacific octagonal $50 design. And I say that purely from a design standpoint, not because the coin happens to be a rare gold commemorative worth five figures. If it were a modern coin struck in copper, nickel, or silver, with the same design, I would love it just as much, even if one were worth five bucks instead of $35K.
Mark my words, the collectors of the future will not sneer at the Susan B. Anthony. Any more than we sneer at the Matron Head large cent.
It's all good.
She had nice skin and with a little makeup makeover
<< <i>The Roosevelt Dime... >>
See how many of these "muttonhead" coppers you can get from the locals, in exchange for a Susan B. Anthony dollar each.
They'll probably be more than happy to take your lovely 20th century anachronisms off your hands. When they ask why your coins are dated 1979, just tell 'em they were made in 1779 and that it was a mint error and the engraver was illiterate. They'll understand that all too well.
We've come a long way, baby.
That would be a pretty profitable trade for you, but the 21st century market in Connecticut coppers would probably take a dive once you unloaded your purchases on today's market.
**WINNER**Lordmarcovan's "2008 Most Righteous Giver-Away of Good Loot Award"
I saw a seller on eBay offering a well-worn British large penny and he described Britannia as "a lady in a wheelchair".
“In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock." - Thomas Jefferson
My digital cameo album 1950-64 Cameos - take a look!
From a design standpoint, many American coins were dull as dirt from the end of WW2 until the millennium, but we're still amateurs in the ugly coin department.
(No, those lines are not die breaks. They are a part of the design.)
Just ask MadMarty. (Or no, don't ask him- he likes these).
Actually, the Cook Islands produces some lovely coin designs. That just ain't one of them.
It's interesting, though.
See? We could have it a lot worse.
<< <i>Exactly.
I saw a seller on eBay offering a well-worn British large penny and he described Britannia as "a lady in a wheelchair". >>
Call 'um like you see 'um, eh?
The guy with his face caught in the blender blades, is ahhhh, creepy, is the first thing that comes to mind. I just hope it doesn't start to spin and fling blood everywhere
**WINNER**Lordmarcovan's "2008 Most Righteous Giver-Away of Good Loot Award"