Bad Money After Good

We see that the United States Mint has today introduced the new Jefferson nickel:

“This nickel features a forward-looking President Jefferson who recognized that the Louisiana Purchase and Lewis and Clark expedition would expand our horizons in numerous ways,” said United States Mint Acting Director David A. Lebryk. “This is a hopeful, positive image, emblematic of a bright future for our Nation.”

It is also unspeakably ugly.

Please don't mistake us. It is not nearly so hideous as the current dollar coin, the amazing and depressing "golden dollar," which includes a muddy portrait of Sacajawea.

There was a time, of course, when American coins were notable not only for their formidable heft, but for their considerable beauty and dignity.




Between 1878 and 1921, the United States minted the beautiful "Morgan" dollar, named after its designer (rather than, as is often thought, the banker). When a fellow flips one of these guys, he knows he's got cash. Each weighed nearly an ounce, and contained just a tad more than 3/4 ounce of silver, itself today worth about $6.70.


But there can be no dispute that one of the most beautiful coins ever minted, and certainly the most wonderful ever struck by the United States, was the Twenty Dollar Saint Gaudens "Double Eagle," minted between 1907 and 1933.

But, alas, those days appear to be over. Are there no artists who are up to the task? I think the reason is otherwise. To conceive and to strike an impressive coin requires a certain confidence, optimism, even triumphalist self-regard. Consider that our contemporary coins must be produced by the bureaucracy of the nanny state, while the more beautiful examples of the past come from the era that produced both Theodore Roosevelt and John D. Rockefeller.

It’s a thought.