Post your ugliest design gold coins.

[dcarr]

It also took two "artists" to come up with this sink-o reverse design, which I view as worst ever to appear on a U.S. coin that was mass produced and distributed.

 

Not just two. Actually THREE (there are three sets of designer's initials on the reverse): Alex Shagin; Marcel Jovine; and Al Maletsky (although the latter was just sculpting what was already specified).

 

[dcarr]

The most repugnant US gold coin design for me is the obverse of the so-called indian head eagle from 1907-33 with the face of a bewildered caucasian shemale teenager, chewing gum with her mouth open, wearing an amerindian feathered headdress from the high school costume closet. I don't own one of these, just purloined the pic from ebay:

 

UGH!

 

 

I'm pretty sure in real life this person would have a Southern California valley accent and would say "dude" a lot.

 

I'm not a big fan of the reverse "snake-neck" Eagle either.

 

[rrantique]

I don't think that is a majority opinion but to each their own. I like the $10 Indian.

 

I like pre-33 US gold but the Classic Head obverse is a bit homely - ha! I like the coins though.

 

The $10 Indian is my favorite gold design. Perfect period piece.

 

Mark

 

+1 (thumbs u

[BillJones]

It also took two "artists" to come up with this sink-o reverse design, which I view as worst ever to appear on a U.S. coin that was mass produced and distributed.

 

Not just two. Actually THREE (there are three sets of designer's initials on the reverse): Alex Shagin; Marcel Jovine; and Al Maletsky (although the latter was just sculpting what was already specified).

 

If I had been Mr. Maletsky, I would have done that sculpting work anonymously so that my name would not have been associated with that dreary project. A better claim for designing this piece could have been, "A nameless, faceless, talentless government bureaucrat" which would have saved everyone a lot of embarrassment, given this aberration the authorship it deserves.

 

 

 

[Colorado68]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

 

I'm sure if I was the holder of this coin I'd have a different opinion.

 

 

 

Not sure what Brigham Young was thinking with this design, I think it's ugly.

[physics-fan3.14]

Bill, the lady on that 1813 half eagle looks rough! I would not want to cross her!

[Conder101]

I like the Heraldic Eagle revere much better

Idon't know, every time I see the Heraldic desin the word that pops into my mind is "roadkill". Looks like the eagle has been squashed and that shield, with the lines, that could be treadmarks.

 

The young eagle image is better shown on the silver type coins from 1796-7 which are among the most difficult type coins in the U.S. series.

I don't know the "feathers" almost look like scales giving the bird a reptilian appearance.

 

A better claim for designing this piece could have been, "A nameless, faceless, talentless government bureaucrat" which would have saved everyone a lot of embarrassment, given this aberration the authorship it deserves.

I think someone told them they needed a design to stamp on coins.......so they designed a rubber stamp. And mistakenly cut coinage dies from it. (You have to admit they DO look more like designs for a rubber stamp.)

[johnny9434]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

 

I'm sure if I was the holder of this coin I'd have a different opinion.

 

 

 

Not sure what Brigham Young was thinking with this design, I think it's ugly.

i dont know what he was thinking either.

[BillJones]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

 

I'm sure if I was the holder of this coin I'd have a different opinion.

 

 

 

Not sure what Brigham Young was thinking with this design, I think it's ugly.

i dont know what he was thinking either.

 

If I had a chance to own a Morman gold coin at reasonable price I would not spend any time thinking that it was "ugly," unless it was polished or otherwise damaged.

[RWB]

What color is the "Eye of Providence?"

 

[Conder101]

From the pictures I'd say yellow.

[delta]

The images on those capped bust gold coins posted by Bill Jones remind me of my 4th grade school teacher, so tough she overwhelmed the potential juvenile delinquents of our blackboard jungle, and was described behind her back as a battle-axe, or in even more graphic terms.

 

I'm in full agreement with wdrob that the depictions of Amerinidians by Pratt & Fraser are artistically elegant and appropriately conceived, and the ongoing modern gold buffalo coin series is the greatest of our American gold from an esthetic viewpoint.

 

Bill, the lady on that 1813 half eagle looks rough! I would not want to cross her!

[RWB]

The model for the early bust gold coins was Sister Mary "Brass Knuckles" O'Sullivan. She was a teacher of catechism at the Our Lady of Purple Bruises school in Philadelphia. This was the only school to have its own gallows -- for educational purposes, only -- of course.

[delta]

The history and development of the $10 1907-33 gold indian obverse image was presented in painstakingly excruciating detail by Roger W. Burdette in the first volume (covering 1905-08) of his marvelous trilogy on the Renaissance of American Coinage, using an immense amount of archival sources.

 

Despite any of the context, I still find the hopelessly mismatched elements of the design to be ridiculous. Those who collect the series need not necessarily like the design. Those who do like the design can find various justifications for doing so, and their opinions deserve respect.

 

But my concrete objections are several. First of all the wide open mouth of Miss Liberty when rendered as part of a static head shot on a flat coin makes her appear to be clueless, as if saying duh. RWB explains Saint Gaudens modeled it on his sculpture of Nike, the original being a life size woman in a dynamic pose, in full motion with great emotion, explaining the facial expression. The transfer was woefully ineffective.

 

The clash of the incompatible elements in the design are astoundingly bad, and are mainly due to bull-headed interference by Teddy Roosevelt. Putting an Amerindian feathered headdress restricted in actual usage to male warrior chiefs on the head of a woman with prominent greco-roman features is an incredible mismatch.

 

[The 'Nike Erini' portrait by Saint-Gaudens was considered a superb example of neo-classic work back in 1907. It appears again on the Peace dollar, although the lady had apparently been to a local cosmetologist convention prior to coinage. For the $10 it was President Roosevelt who demanded the headdress. He also wanted one for the Liberty figure on the $20 but the artist wouldn't do that. The feathers were actually modeled on goose feathers owned by Adolph Weinman.]

[RWB]

"...painstakingly excruciating..." Now, see here...I was not part of the Grand Inquisition -- I just wrote the footnotes...

 

 

Agreed. But few would cross TR on this.

 

Saint-Gaudens preferred the Liberty/headdress version for the $20 but TR wanted the striding Liberty as used.

 

Few know that the same obverse plus the $10 reverse was used for 1908 pattern $5 pieces. All of these were destroyed soon after Sturgis Bigelow convinced TR to use a sunk relief Native American portrait by Bela Pratt. The master dies still exist at the Philadelphia Mint.

[delta]

Do the ruler-shaped scars on the back of your hand, the well-deserved consequences of your bad behavior while schooling, interfere much with greeting people with a hand shake, and is that your usual excuse when you drop someone's valuable rare coins, oops, so sorry, but anyway it had a design you disdained?

 

The model for the early bust gold coins was Sister Mary "Brass Knuckles" O'Sullivan. She was a teacher of catechism at the Our Lady of Purple Bruises school in Philadelphia. This was the only school to have its own gallows -- for educational purposes, only -- of course.

[RWB]

...the backs of my hands still have the numbers impressed from the ruler -- the "Frying Nun" was deadly accurate.

 

I once dropped a $500 BU half-dime on a bourse floor and watched it roll down the aisle. The dealer (Kam Ahwash) just laughed...as did everyone else.

[KMAG100]

Bill, the lady on that 1813 half eagle looks rough! I would not want to cross her!

 

She looks like she has been chasing parked cars.....I guess parked wagons back then

[KMAG100]

But I have to admit the 1907 looks just like TC

[RWB]

[On another board, someone revived an old thread on much this same topic. The Eunice Shriver commemorative got many votes. While the portrait is awful, and Mrs. Schriver was not a beauty on the outside, anyone who knew her instantly recognized a person of exceptional warmth, caring and dedication to helping mentally disabled people.]