Believe it or not, a GOOD question from a Comic-Guy!

[hammer-migration]

In the comic hobby, there are many steps between the inception of a comic and the racking of them on the stands. One of the beginning steps is a very popular collectible in itself...original comic art. The artists finalized drawings of the stories that will used to create the plates that produce the comic. Most of this becomes, at some point, the property of the artist, who may choose to sell, or keep it accordingly. In coins, are there similar collectibles available? Does a coin design start off as an artist's conception that a master die is made from? Do these circulate in the market or are they sole property of the US Govt? Any other insights. Very curious.

[Tradedollarnut]

The answer is yes - plaster casts and artist conceptions sell occasionally. I've seen quite a few over the years - items by Victor D Brenner, Fraser, Schlag, Gasparro, etc.

[jtryka]

Interesting question! There are some similarities, but you must understand that the very nature of coins prevents much of this art from circulating or being collected by the average collector. First, with comics, you have new issues every month or so, and each issue has many images (you would know better the numbers), and then there are hundreds of titles, so that presents thoudands of opportunities for original art every year. With coins, you only have the original art when a new coin is designed, which is more frequent now with the state quarter program, so you get 5 new designs a year. But look at the other denominations, the cent obverse is essentially unchanged since 1909, the reverse since 1959, the nickel since 1938, the dime since 1946 and Half since 1964. In the old days, many of these designs were made by sculptors that were artists, not just coin designers. So typically there was a sculpture, which was reduced to a plaster casting from which the coin dies and hubs were created (anyone that knows the details here, please correct me if I'm wrong). In fact some of these designs are quite famous, like the statue of Augustus Saint-Gaudens standing liberty on the $20 gold piece, for which I believe there is a full life statue in New York City. I believe the plaster castings are retained by the mint.

 

The second and probably most important issue is that coins are money, and the Mint is VERY anal about potential counterfeiting. You can buy old dies, but they are almost always completely defaced, with no details of the design remaining. So as far as original artwork for coins, I believe there are a few items out there, but they are very rare and very expensive. The only other area of potential art, is an area known as pattern coins. These are mostly 19th century coins that were trial pieces of potential new designs that were never put into production. There are hundreds of varieties on many different metals, and they are available but sometimes costly. There is a pretty active group of collectors that specialize in such patterns. That would probably be the closest thing in coins to original art in comics. Hope this helps!

[hammer-migration]

Thank you for your experise! I was always curious but the opportunity to ask didn't present itself. I thought there might be something that equates to original comic pages for coin design artwork. I've even seen original art for things like 1920s and 1930s World Series press pins circulating that were originally filed at Dieges and Cust (makers of many old press pins for World Series). I guess it all starts with paper and pen/pencil.

[cladking]

The mint makes millions of specially struck exceptionally lustrous coins each year called proofs. It's a little bit of a stretch, but these could in a sense be considered similar to original comic art. Where the art is mostly unique, these coins are made in large numbers though.

[Hoot]

Wow - Jeff's response was terrific and some great input!

 

I recently picked up a copy of Don Taxay's "An Illustrated History of U.S. Commemorative Coinage ." One of the great things about the book is that it includes many illustrations of artists' original or intermediate designs. It's fantastic to compare what was initially conceived to what the final products were. Generally available through Amazon's used books.

 

Hoot

[jtryka]

I did a little searching, and Saint-Gaudens did a statue entitled "Victory" of which there is a gilt-bronze casting at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Philadelphia Carnegie and I believe several others exist (there is one at the Columbus Museum as well I believe). This statue also graces the front of the Sherman Monument at Central Park in NYC. This statue was the basis for the obverse of the famous double eagle he designed. There is a great site by the National Park Service which administers his Home in Cornish, NH with lots of interesting stuff on him. That national historic site also has the plaster model of his one-cent design done in 1905 or 1906 (unfortunately it lost out to Abe Lincoln and Victor Brenner). Here is a link ASG Home Historic Site . There are probably lots of historical sites on the web for all of our favorite designers, and I would encourage you to share them!