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Busy Coin Themes. Post a coin/medal with complicated devices.

Started by braddick,

21 posts in this topic

braddick

braddick

Posted
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I always thought this medal, much larger than a silver dollar, had a lot going on and has wonderful detail.

 

Think of a coin or medal that has a complex design!

 

newyorkmedal.jpg

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BillJones

BillJones

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DanMorganO.jpgDanMorganR.jpg

 

This is a bronze example of a gold medal that was issued to Daniel Morgan for his victory against British at the Battle of the Cowpens during the Revolutionary war. This was the battle that inspired the final scenes for the Mel Gibson film The Patriot.

 

French medal master, Augustin Dupre, who also designed the Libertas Americana medal, made the dies for this piece. It is considered to be one the best designs in the Cometia Americana series.

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BillJones

BillJones

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2006319842856750094_rs.jpg

 

Even if they tried they couldn't get anymore on there!

 

Edit: not my coin

 

The thing about the Norfolk design is that there are some many letters it's almsot impossible to get any hits in the field. As a result the coin is pretty easy to find in MS-66 (if you can afford the several hundred dollars it costs), but darn had to find in MS-64 or lower.

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braddick

braddick

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Very cool, all of you.

 

You see these intricate designs and compare them to say, our newer State quarters, and I bow my head in shame at the Mint's contemporary creations.

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BillJones

BillJones

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Very cool, all of you.

 

You see these intricate designs and compare them to say, our newer State quarters, and I bow my head in shame at the Mint's contemporary creations.

 

I would not chastise the mint too much for the lack of intricacy that appears on the State Quarter designs. There is a HUGE difference between the manufacturing process that goes into making an art medal and a coin for general circulation.

 

Art medals, like the pieces others have shown here, are meant to display attractive designs in their very best light. They may be struck multiple times to bring up all of the detail, and their mintages are often limited to no more than a few thousand pieces. In the case of the Dan Morgan medal that I posted, the U.S. mint produced only 98 of those pieces during the 19th century. And that mint is actually high relative to other U.S. mint medals of the period.

 

The production and intended use for coins is FAR different. For the State Quarter series, mintages into the billions are standard. This huge number of coins must be stuck with one blow from the dies, and the dies must last for many tens of thousands of coins. In addition the coins must have a standard size and weight so that they will work in vending machines. And even a seeming minor problem, like a “fin” or wire rim on the edge of the coin, can result it the piece jamming a coin operated device.

 

In short the mint deserves a break when it comes to regular production coins. Coins and medals service two purposes and therefore it is not fair to compare the appearance of coins to art medals.

 

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Conder101

Conder101

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The production and intended use for coins is FAR different. For the State Quarter series, mintages into the billions are standard. This huge number of coins must be stuck with one blow from the dies, and the dies must last for many tens of thousands of coins.

Also the coppernickel alloy used is considerably harder than the old silver alloy. It takes a certain fixed amount of time for the metal under pressure to flow into into the designs in the die and it doesn't flow as readily. Yet the old intricate silver coins were struck at 60 coins per minute or one coin per second, but the state quarters are struck at 750 coins per minute or about 13 coins per second. So the slower flowing coppernickel has only 1/13th the amount of time to fill the dies than the silver did. For that reason the mint could never create those old designs today with the current material and press speeds. That is why we have seen a constant lowering of the relief and the spaghetti hair etc. If the metal can't flow as far, make shallower designs that it can flow enough to fill.

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