Posted on 06/19/2002 12:08:43 PM PDT by gubamyster
The U.S. Mint almost booted Monticello off the nickel this week — until Virginia's delegation to the House of Representatives, led by Republican Eric Cantor, introduced legislation to stop it.
That's the story Cantor's office is spreading, though the Mint says the whole thing is just a big misunderstanding.
What's clear, however, is that the Mint doesn't want next year's nickels looking like the ones now jingling in your pocket.
The Mint would like to redesign all of America's coins. Its ongoing 50 State Quarters program has been a popular success. As a celebration of federalism, too, it's something conservatives can cheer.
But not every newfangled coin design is a good one. The $1 Sacajawea coin is a monument to political correctness — and the nickel might have suffered a similar fate but for Cantor's intervention.
January 2003 marks the 200th anniversary of the Lewis & Clark expedition, and the Mint thought that commemorating their journey on the Jefferson-head nickel would make sense. Jefferson, after all, was a vital supporter of their mission. So far, so good.
To accomplish this, however, the Mint would have to replace the image of Monticello on the nickel's flip side — and it was proposing a picture of an Indian looking westward, plus an eagle.
Indians and eagles are both traditional symbols on U.S. coinage — there was an Indian-head nickel before there was a Jefferson nickel — but what Indians and eagles have to do with Lewis & Clark is unclear. Did nobody at the mint think the most fitting commemoration of Lewis & Clark might be an image of Lewis & Clark?
"We look at it as a way of acknowledging the Indians Lewis & Clark met as they went westward," says Michael White, a spokesman for the Mint.
Of course, we already do that with the Sacajawea coin — Sacajawea was an Indian girl who traveled with the Lewis & Clark expedition. The Indians Lewis & Clark met on their way westward may have been fine people, but must they appear on two of the five main coins used by Americans?
"The image is just a proposal. No decision has been made and we're in the process of consulting with Congress on what to do," says White.
That's not Cantor's impression. "We were led to believe this was a done deal," he says. "So were the other members of the Virginia delegation."
The Secretary of the Treasury is allowed to change the appearance of a coin once every 25 years without congressional approval. The Jefferson nickel was introduced in 1938, and it has looked the same ever since. If the Mint takes Monticello off the nickel, it doesn't have a mechanism for putting it back on until another 25 years pass. Only Congress could do that.
This is what concerned Cantor: the fear that Monticello might be permanently expunged from the nickel. He may try to attach to his bill to a piece of legislation scheduled for markup next week by the financial services committee.
"Monticello should stay on the nickel," says Cantor, perhaps aware that the nickel is a subliminal advertisement for Virginia tourism. The congressman, whose district does include Monticello, says he would not support a compromise bill that allows the Mint to circulate Lewis & Clark nickels for a few years before guaranteeing a return to the Monticello image. There's simply too much bad blood.
The Mint appears to have botched a nifty idea. A more appropriate image for a Lewis & Clark commemoration paired with a smarter consultation with Congress might have led to another popular coinage program.
And perhaps everyone could have worked together to get rid of that irritating little pony tail that hangs off the back of Jefferson's head on the obverse side. It makes our third president look like a hippie.
Lewis and Clark are just Dead White Male exploiters, so the idea went right past the Mint's Diversity Commissar.
William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site
For the first 67 years of American coinage, the obverses of all our coins sported a female depiction of Liberty. It might be a head of Liberty, a bust of Liberty, Liberty standing, Liberty seated or Liberty walking. But it was always a female depiction of Liberty.
In 1859, the cent briefly featured a Flying Eagle, which was then quickly retired to make way for Indian Head Liberty. By 1859 Indians were no longer a daily threat to Americans, and there was some nostalgia value to the image. The Indian stayed until Lincoln took his place on the centenary of his birth in 1909. Lincoln's penny was supposed to be a one-year commemorative issue, but he ended up staying.
This was only the beginning of the trend.
By now the Progressive Movement was in full flower. People were taught that the flag, rather than the Constitution, was the backbone of America. Theodore Roosevelt began laying the first bricks of the Imperial Presidency.
So it was no surprise that Washington replaced Standing Liberty on the quarter in 1932, the bicentennial of his birth. Standing Liberty had very weak relief, and it was hard to see that one of her breasts was hanging out of her toga. The change was probably an improvement.
In 1938, on the bicentennial of his birth, Jefferson graced the nickel, replacing an Indian Head Liberty image that had itself replaced Charles Barber's female Liberty Head in 1913.
Franklin graced the half dollar from 1948 to 1963, replacing an attractive Walking Liberty image.
FDR, Kennedy and Eisenhower's bodies were barely cold before they were put on the dime, half dollar and new silver dollar respectively. FDR replaced Winged Liberty, often thought incorrectly to be a depiction of Mercury. Kennedy replaced Franklin, and Eisenhower replaced Peace Liberty, whose last silver dollar had been minted in 1934.
Susan Anthony was in fact the result of political correctness. But Sacajawea was a return to the way things were before people began to worship dead presidents, i.e., the image was a female Indian Head Liberty image. The fact that the coin was the wrong size is a different issue entirely.
Personally I would like to get the presidents off all our coins and return to female depictions of Liberty. Our contemporary coinage may only be a symptom of the larger problem of the legacy of the Progressive Movement and the Imperial Presidency it engendered, but it's a symptom that should be dosed with ample amounts of female Liberty.
Until we could design new coins with female Liberty on the obverses, I'd like a temporary reissuance of our Oldies But Goodies series: the Flying Eagle or Indian Head Liberty cent, Barber's Liberty Head nickel, the Standing Liberty dime from before the Civil War, and our earliest Liberty Bust quarter from the days of Alexander Hamilton.
Forget the half dollar, and if we really need a dollar and Sacajawea won't do, let's bring back Morgan's classic Victorian Lady Liberty for the dollar.
Just my two cents.
Hefting an Ike, even it seemed too light to me, so we got out some of the Morgan and Peace silver dollars I had saved when my grandfather gave them to me from time to time in the early 1950s. Big difference! The real silver dollar coins were much heavier. They felt like money to this trogdylite who remembers all the pre-1964 silver dollars, half dollars, quarters and dimes, not to mention the old $20, $10, $5 and $1 gold pieces my father had that his grandfather had given him!
FYI, they have been minting Silver Eagles since 1986, with a $1 face value. They each contain 1 troy ounce of silver, and so are actually worth more than a dollar, and they use the "Walking Liberty" design that used to be on half dollars.
And the Indian Head Penny bears the potrait of a white child in an Indian headress. The girl is Sarah Longacre, 8 year old daughter of an engraver at the mint, James Barton Longacre. The child happened to be visiting her father's office when an entourage of Indians came through on a tour after signing a treaty in DC. The chief took a liking to the child and put his headress on her, and her father quickly sketched her likeness. He later put the design on the penny.
I've always thought it a shame that this coin is no longer in use.
See Reply #11. BTW, Sarah Longacre is my distant cousin.
Under the original plan, the Lincoln cent was only going to be issued in 1909. Then the Indian cent would come back in 1910. Unfortunately it didn't turn out that way.
That's why I want to reissue it as part of the Oldies But Goodies series.
East of the Mississippi, perhaps. Those on the Western frontier would have some not-so-friendly encounters with Indians for years to come.
I definitely agree with you on the subject of coinage. IMO, the most beautiful American coin to date is the Saint-Gaudens $20 gold piece.
The metal this coin is minted with has real value, too. THIS is money.
Anyway, my favorite as a kid was always the Mercury Dime:
(The following article by Michael Marrotta originally appeared in The Shinplaster, March 1994. Published by the Livingston County Coin Club, P. O. Box 2020, Howell, Michigan 48844, USA.)
The designer was Adolph A. Weinman, who also did the Walking Liberty Half. The similarity is style is easy to see. Both coins, reflect a 20th century neo-classicism, a lighter line a narrower proportion, more in touch with modern times.
The obverse, of course, shows Liberty, as did all American coins at one time. Compare this Liberty to the fat-faced Roman lady on the Morgan Dollar and you will see how our views of beauty changed over the span of a single generation. This an active Liberty thinner and younger. She wears a Phrygian cap, the Roman attribute of a freed slave. The wings on her cap represent freedom of thought. It is from the winged cap that we get the image of "Mercury". The designer's initials also appear on the obverse, between the "Y" and the date, behind the neck of Liberty.
The reverse depicts the Roman fasces, a bundle of rods, the center rod being an ax. Breen's Encyclopedia goes into detail on the subject of the fasces. As a symbol of state authority, the facses offers a choice: "by the rod or by the ax". The condemned was either beaten to death with the rods or else allowed the mercy of the ax.
(Snip).....
The coin saw America through some rough times. During the Depression, it was the only new silver mintage in 1931 and 1932. During WWII, it was produced in astounding quantities of 250 million in 1941, 42, 43 and 45, and an astronomical third of a billion in 1944. In fact, the total mintage was just under 2.7 billion, over half (1.5 billion) of which were issued from 1941 to 1945. As a result, of this volume, strikes are often poor.
The toughest detail for the mint was the dual band across the middle of the fasces. The pristine design shows two ribbons tying the axes. This detail is usually lost in most strikes. FSB is the collector's shorthand for "full split band." Most common dates in BU go for $5 to $20 (MS60 to MS65) but "FSB" earns the coin about another $10. The other bands, the diagonals are also not always sharp, even in a coin which is otherwise a strong Uncirculated and shows mint luster. This is the other split personality. Seldom is a coin with mint luster lacking in details. Only silver dollars are graded as strictly as the Mercury Dime.
Works for me!
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