I love the oh-so-boy buffalo, but every time I see the Jefferson side of the new nickel, for a moment I think I must have coin that was made wrong so that the die stamped crooked and **I’m going to be rich, rich, rich! **until I realize, of course, that they meant it to look like that. That’s right, U.S. Mint, dash my dreams so quickly.
All those individualized state quarters may not be great classics, but at least they get that awful piece of supermarket poultry off the 25¢ piece. Every single neocoinage and temporary substitution (including the bicentennial drummer guy, a design they really should’ve kept) has been a substantial improvement on the deadest and most plucked lookiing eagle carcass to ever drop into a vending machine.
I do wish they’d go back to the wheat ears on the pennies, though.
The dime’s not bad although I liked the reverse on the “Mercury” dime better.
The buffalo is better than the Jefferson Memorial. In fact, in general buildings are boring as hell on coins.
The kennedy half is one of our best modern coins. Not that we ever see it, but still. The eagle on the Kennedy half is well rendered. As is the eagle that’s graced the various dollars (Ike, Susie, Sackie).
Is it just me, or does Washington look mildly redone on the fancy state quarters? It’s effectively the same image but the portrait looks sharper, crisper.
I think the profile on the new nickel looks like Zombie Jefferson. I mean, really. The “chiseled” cheekbones that should look authoritative and strong look emaciated and sunken to me, and the eyes are soullessly hollow.
Ick.
Shit.
I think I threw one away, thinking it was funny money (like Chucky Cheese money, not counterfeit stuff).
Why do I never get the damn memos about this stuff?
Down here, son, we call 'em buffalo.
I mean, seriously, can you imagine William F. Cody Calling himself “Bison Bill”? I think not.
Terrifel: Blow it out your ass. You hate it ‘cuz currency changes over time? Fuckin’ waaaaaaaa. You hate it ‘cuz you don’t like the designs they’ve come up with lately? Well, two things there. One, why get all worked up over the particular design changes to currency at all? Fuckin’ waaa. And two, you’re wrong. The new nickel is fuckin’ gorgeous.
You have got to be fuckin’ kidding me. This part’s a joke, right?
Intellectually I can sympathize with this view, but I nonetheless can’t shake a wistful affection for “Ol’ Roadkill.” I never considered the design as a failed attempt at a naturalistic depiction, but more of an intentionally hyper-symmetrical heraldic portrayal. “How can we pose an eagle to most efficiently occupy a circular emblem?” No, it’s not the most intuitively graceful position for a bird, but then Ancient Egypt produced a lot of impressive images that don’t really scan as plausible either. I think it evokes a kind of regal artifice.
In fact, I’m generally willing to give a pass to all those freaky little bits of occult Masonic symbolism in American currency design; they’re fun to look for, and make for interesting dinner conversations.
And really, I find it hard to believe that anyone could possibly find the Washington quarter less aesthetically pleasing than the Indiana state quarter, whatever your standards. “The state of Indiana wishes to publically acknowledge that the most significant contribution we’ve ever made to the Union is NASCAR.”
Monticello, actually. Although either way, I think Jefferson would have been cool with the bison too.
Eagle reverse design, I mean to say. Indiana’s state quarter has him on it too, of course. In fact, he could also be driving the car now that I think about it.
Oh come on, it’s a giant undead projectile-wielding bird of prey! How can anyone not love that image? That’s practically like having a coin featuring Godzilla.
It’s not you. It’s raised up a little more. Put a regular quarter next to a state quarter, heads up, and it’s easy to tell which is which.
He doesn’t look wicked intimidating, he just looks like he’s been pinned to the wall to make it easier to pluck him.
The bird, not George.
Kind of. My point here was that, while having “Liberty” etched in Jefferson’s handwriting is a nice thought, the practical upshot is to make the word itself less readable, since script isn’t as easy to decipher as print when greatly reduced. Notice that the text on most coins is presented in fairly plain, unadorned lettering rather than fancy calligraphy. This is to improve legibility, especially since fine details tend to disappear as coins become worn from handling. I therefore predict that, as these coins are circulated, the word “Liberty” will become unreadable faster than the motto “In God We Trust.”
I’m sure that the Treasury Department could have written “In God We Trust” in Jefferson’s handwriting, too, so it’s kind of strange why they didn’t. Maybe it would have been too much work to find each individual word in his writings and paste them together. On the other hand, it probably would have been much easier to find the original United States motto, “E Pluribus Unum,” in Jefferson’s hand, since he’s the one who came up with it. I can tell that he likes the new motto better, though, from the way he’s gazing up at it semi-orgasmically on this new nickel. At least the coin still displays the old motto: on the back, now in the tiniest print imaginable. It looks like the bison’s about to whiz on it.
Damn. I believe he could shoot butterbeans out of those nostrils.
Maybe it’s a tie-in with the new Batman movie. Give Tom a monocle and he could be The Penguin.
What I really don’t get is the nickel with the golf clubs on the reverse.
Is it still worth 5 cents? Yeah? Then I don’t give a flying fart what it looks like.
Hm, well, I’d expect it to be a bit further down, but hell, I’ve never looked at a bison’s dong before.
It’s that whole American Obesity Epidemic gone global. Starting with leaders and historical figures.
I don’t think coin is particularily ugly, though I’d want to see it actual size. The placement of the ‘Liberty’ is odd. Sort of like it was supposed to be in a dialogue bubble, but the engraver slipped.
The buffalo isn’t looking too good when it fills my screen, it might look like a clump of broccoli on the actual coin. Also, that’s just not what any male buffalo I’ve ever seen looks like. Not in placement or shape.
This is troubling. It seems I’ve been studying animal privates a bit too closely.
Actually, it starts back where you were expecting it. What you see there is just the end.
Yeah, you don’t even want to know what a bison John Holmes looks like…
It’s that whole American Obesity Epidemic gone global. Starting with leaders and historical figures.
I don’t think coin is particularily ugly, though I’d want to see it actual size. The placement of the ‘Liberty’ is odd. Sort of like it was supposed to be in a dialogue bubble, but the engraver slipped.
The buffalo isn’t looking too good when it fills my screen, it might look like a clump of broccoli on the actual coin. Also, that’s just not what any male buffalo I’ve ever seen looks like. Not in placement or shape. The rendering just doesn’t read well.
This is troubling. It seems I’ve been studying animal privates a bit too closely.
“Gimme five bees for a quarter.”