[fieldmarshaldj]

I thought the absurdity of "President dies, get on the coin." FDR died, he gets on the dime by the following year. JFK died, on the half-dollar months afterward. Ike dies, gets on the dollar coin less than 2 years later. Why ?

When Lincoln was murdered, other than for some commemoratives and medallions, he had to wait 44 years (to the centennial of his birth) to get on the lowly penny. Where were the coins for other assassinated Presidents ? How come Garfield didn't get on the nickel ? McKinley on the quarter ? Or those who died before their time, like poor William Henry Harrison, James K. Polk (who died only a year after he left office), Gen. Zachary Taylor ?

JFK & Ike should've gotten a commemorative, not bumped up to full-fledged coinage. Poor Benjamin Franklin had less than 2 decades on the half-dollar before being kicked off for the most overrated President in history (who cheated his way to the Presidency, was a sex predator, and almost got us into WW3).

If I could wave a magic wand, I would replace the coinage with these (adding a five, ten, and silver $50):

Penny

Nickel (return to the Buffalo/Indian Head)

Dime (return to Mercury)

Quarter (return to Standing Liberty)

Half-Dollar (originally the Indian Head $10)

Dollar (original Indian Head $2.50 piece)

Five Dollar (original Trade Dollar)

Ten Dollar (original 1804 Dollar coin)

Fifty Dollar (original Peace Dollar, which could be minted in silver)

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Excellent assessment!

While you’re at it, let’s also lop two zeroes off of our currency and get the numbers back to a lower range that was more meaningful. Inflation has really clobbered our coins and bills. The problem with doing that is you can’t recycle old coins or the old currency. You need to call it the “New Dollar” and give a deadline for everybody to turn in their old dollars for the New Dollar.

When I was a kid, we got 2¢ for a recyclable milk bottle and we thought we were rich!

[hanamizu]

I like your choices. But the Standing Liberty, which is stunning when new, wears rather poorly. When I was a kid (dodging dinosaurs) almost seemed to wear close to flat. But politicians, even good ones have made our coinage ugly.

[TexasRepublic]

You overlooked the beautiful Barber series.