By Louis Golino for CoinWeek …..
If there is one idea for improving American coin designs that appears to command a broad consensus among collectors of American coins, it is that the U.S. should mint more coins with images of Liberty on them. That is a recurring them in recommendations from collectors that appear in online forums and elsewhere. It is also something I have suggested several times in my columns.
The U.S. Mint already issues bullion and collector coins with classic images of Liberty like the American silver, gold, and platinum eagles. This year’s proof platinum eagle is an especially striking depiction of the allegorical image of Lady Liberty.
But circulating coins are another matter. Many collectors believe that the use of the same images of former presidents on our commercial coinage for decades has inhibited interest in numismatics and resulted in coins with uninspiring designs, notwithstanding modifications like the changes to the profile of President Jefferson on the nickel.
But as Gary Marks, the Chairman of the Citizens’ Coinage Advisory Commission (CCAC) , explained in an interview with me, past efforts to remove presidential images “were halted due to concerns that presidential honor be preserved.”
The CCAC, which makes recommendations to the Secretary of the Treasury on what coins should be issued and what their designs should be, has gone public with an exciting proposal sure to set numismatic imaginations on fire and revolutionize modern American circulating coinage, if approved by Congress.
The commission unanimously approved a resolution on April 19 recommending the issuance of an American Liberty Commemorative Coinage Program that would start in 2015, and which would involve the issuance of dimes, quarters, and half dollars that depict modernized images of Liberty. As the resolution says, Liberty “remains a quintessentially iconic American image.” Moreover, the program provides an opportunity for the Mint’s artists and sculptors to use their talents to produce a wide variety of modern images of Liberty.
The resolution also notes that the success of the state quarter program, which is estimated to have been collected by 147 million people, shows that “the demand for circulating coins increases significantly when frequent and systemic changes are made through a multi-year commemorative design series.”
The Liberty series proposal is not new, as the committee has recommended the program in each of its five most recent annual reports, but so far the idea has not been approved by Congress, and legislation calling for the program does not yet exist.
According to an article in the May 13 issue of Coin World, three members of the CCAC met recently with members of congress to discuss the idea, and specifically to explain that the new proposal has dropped plans to issue cents and nickels since those coins cost more to produce than their face value. Members of Congress did not approve the proposal in the past in part because of concerns that taxpayer money would be needed to mint the small denomination coins.
The Liberty coins would co-circulate with, rather than replace, existing presidential coinage; they would be issued indefinitely; and each coin would have a new modern depiction of Liberty rather than reusing images from classic American coins like the Seated Liberty series. New Liberty dimes and quarters would be issued in alternating years as one-year only coins beginning in 2015 with a different design on each coin, and a Liberty half dollar would also be minted for collectors with a new design each decade.
CCAC Chairman Gary Marks said the proposed series would be structured to maximize the potential for increased seigniorage and numismatic sales profit. Collectors love one-year only coins so there would be great incentive to obtain and keep each year’s new Liberty dime or quarter. Moreover, those denominations produce seigniorage since they cost less to produce than their face value. In addition, the Liberty half dollar coin series for collectors would help increase numismatic sales and revenue. It was reported that the Mint has tentatively projected revenues of $57.8 million a year from the Liberty program.
Recently I had the opportunity to discuss the proposed Liberty coin program with Mr. Marks, who graciously provided more details about the concept.
Did the committee examine the important issue of how the circulating Liberty dimes and quarters will be distributed so as to avoid the problems encountered with the America the Beautiful program in which collectors had to purchase the coins at a premium because of their unavailability from banks?
GM: Extenuating circumstances have negatively impacted distribution of the America the Beautiful quarters. First, the economic recession has severely reduced the quantity of quarters the Federal Reserve has ordered from the Mint. Also, because the America the Beautiful program includes the issuance of five (5) different reverse designs each year the quantity of each design has been decreased to roughly 1/5th of the already diminished mintage in any of the recent years. Thus, these factors have made it difficult to find America the Beautiful quarters in circulation.
Ultimately, I believe the American Liberty Commemorative Coinage Program as proposed by the CCAC would be successful from a distribution perspective for a few reasons.
First, as economic recovery continues to build the demand for new coinage will also generally increase.
Second, as proposed by the CCAC, mintage of circulating “Liberty” coins will be required to be at least 50 percent of the total mintage for the dime or quarter denominations produced in any given year.
And, finally, the American Liberty program is proposed as an ongoing perpetual program with no sunset date. In other words, they will be issued in tandem with the presidential coins with no ending date. Thus, over time widespread distribution of the Liberty coins will, by necessity, have to occur.
Based on press reports there appears to have been a change over the past few months since the initial proposal also involved issuing Liberty cents and nickels. Is that correct?
GM: Yes, there was a recent change. A big selling point for passage of a potential “American Liberty Commemorative Coinage Program” bill is the fact that recent experience with the 50 State Quarter program and the Westward Nickels program shows that circulating commemorative programs significantly increase the Mint’s seigniorage. Ultimately, the Mint’s seigniorage results in net income that is transferred to the U.S. Treasury to, as a matter of long-standing policy, offset annual budget deficits. Thus, one way to increase the political appeal of the American Liberty bill would be to structure it in a way that emphasizes seigniorage. In this way, an American Liberty bill can be viewed as a bill that will help reduce the Federal Government’s annual budget deficit in a way that does not increase taxes or cut spending. Thus, that fact that the penny and nickel no longer produce seigniorage (and, in fact, cost more to produce than their face value) caused the Committee to eliminate these denominations from the proposal. As a result, the proposal, in its current form, includes circulating dimes and quarters and a numismatic half dollar.
Assuming the proposal is approved by Congress, would the coins be included in annual proof and mint sets?
GM: Yes, the CCAC proposal envisions the production of numismatic grade Liberty coins in tandem with the presidential designs. This would also include production of such coins for numismatic purposes in .999 fine silver.
Would only modern images of Liberty be used, or would some of the old designs be reproduced?
GM: The emphasis for the American Liberty program, as proposed by the CCAC, is to create new and modern conceptions of “Liberty”. The only possible exception is a provision that former Chief Sculptor/Engraver Frank Gasparro’s 1977 mini dollar “Liberty” design (inclusive of both his obverse and reverse designs) be “considered” along with new “Liberty” designs for the numismatic half dollar that would be first issued in 2015.
Would all the coins be designed by the Mint’s team of artists and medallic sculptors, or would the Mint periodically open up the design process to the public as they are doing with the baseball coins?
GM: To-date, the CCAC’s American Liberty proposal has not considered the issue of public design processes.
Could you elaborate on how the program would work?
GM: Each year, one denomination, either the dime or quarter, would be issued with a new image representing Liberty, alongside the regular presidential design for that denomination.
The series is proposed to begin with a Liberty Dime issued alongside the Roosevelt Dime in 2015. At the end of that year, the Liberty Dime would be retired as a one-year issue. In 2016, a Liberty Quarter would be issued alongside the Washington Quarter. As with the Dime, the Liberty Quarter would be retired at the end of the year and the Washington Quarter would continue on as the regular quarter dollar design.
The process would begin again in 2017 with the introduction of a new one-year Liberty Dime (bearing a new Liberty design) that, once again, would be co-issued alongside the regular issue Roosevelt Dime. In 2018, a new one-year Liberty Quarter would be co-issued and the process would continue on a perpetual basis into future years.
The sequencing of new Liberty designs each year is an important aspect of the program designed to continually renew collector interest and, therefore, promote demand for the coins in an ongoing manner. The result of this process will be higher seigniorage, or profit, for the Mint.
The program also envisions creation of a new Liberty Half Dollar, with each design serving for a 10-year term. After 10 years, a new liberty design would be introduced. Similar to the Dime and Quarter, the new Liberty Half Dollar would be co-issued along with the non-circulating Kennedy Half. The new Liberty Half Dollar would help increase the Mint’s numismatic profits and bolster the bottom line for the overall American Liberty program.
Louis Golino is a coin collector and numismatic writer, whose articles on coins have appeared in Coin World, Numismatic News, and a number of different coin web sites. His column for CoinWeek, “The Coin Analyst,” covers U.S. and world coins and precious metals. He collects U.S. and European coins and is a member of the ANA, PCGS, NGC, and CAC. He has also worked for the U.S. Library of Congress and has been a syndicated columnist and news analyst on international affairs for a wide variety of newspapers and web sites.
Louis,
I had not heard this program was being pushed, and I would love to see it succeed. The old Roosevelt dime in particular, I feel, desperately needs an overhaul and I would love to see an alternative “Liberty” version of it. A liberty half dollar might also help to throw some muscle behind the old 50¢ piece as well, though one question that would need to be answered is whether to make the liberty 50¢ a different (presumably smaller) size than the existing Kennedy 50¢.
I have mentioned this before, but I am generally not a fan of presidents on coins, excepting Kennedy. I think most of the other busts just don’t look very good. I think if the mint worked to raise public awareness of these new coins, it might help to excite the public about collecting circulating coinage.
Of course, first Congress needs to actually propose and approve such a program, which is always the biggest hurdle. Do you feel that there is any momentum building in Congress for this prospect?
Thanks, Capt.
I think that now that the cent and nickel are no longer part of the program, momentum should build for it. It would help if someone like the former senator who created both the state quarter and ATB program (whose name escapes me at the moment) were around to push this program. Once there is a sponsor, other members can co-sponsor and it moves forward. The extra $60 million a year in deficit reduction should help. Hopefully this article will be read by members who work on coinage issues.
On the half dollar, I don’t think the size would change and remember the halves will not circulate, only the dimes and quarters will circulate.
I feel a bit embarrassed for missing that the half dollar won’t circulate! I actually think they ought to consider trying to get it to circulate so as to revive the denomination.
Yes, I’d like to see the 50¢ piece return to regular use, too, and would be in favor of downsizing it and/or making it multi-sided.
Halves _did_ circulate regularly until the Kennedy half was released, but by the end of the 1960s most had vanished from circulation because they were saved as keepsakes and because the Mint foolishly continued to mint them from silver. There’s no reason that a smaller-sized half couldn’t replace two quarters in daily use.
I think this would be a great idea. We have coin designs that have been in circulation for so long, no one under 40 (aside from coin collectors) can remember what our coins once looked like before Kennedy, Roosevelt, Jefferson, and most definitely Lincoln were issued. I would love to see Lady Liberty on the Obverse and a flying eagle on the reverse. One quick thought…historically speaking, why has liberty always been depicted as a woman? Does anyone know who first came up with this iconic image?
Griffin- That’s a good question. I know that throughout history going back to Roman times liberty and freedom have been portrayed as female on statues, coins, etc. I also know that the Statue of Liberty was made by Bartholdi, a French sculptor, who I believe modeled it after his mother, and the word liberty, a concept basically invented by the French, is a female word. Plus you have to admit a female liberty looks better to most people than a male one would. If anyone knows anything else and why the founding fathers wanted it that way other than the influence of France, please let us know. Also, remember that in France Marianne represents the nation, it Britain it is Britannia, so an American Lady Liberty fits in well with those traditions.
Louis @ CAP,
I would love to see some new designs as well. I wouldn’t mind having, maybe a for 1 year (and this would be very exciting), all designs having the Liberty face on all coin denominations, but with all having a diff Liberty look, just one year mind you, and the then most popular of the 5 coins ($1 coin not included), would then be put on the 50 piece. But after this, then have some new faces on the existing coins, or delete one or two, and add one or two. The dime has to go. The nickel has to go, which I mean, either a new facial design, or a new historical face. And lets not stop there, how about maybe suggesting instead of a face, put the Bill Of Rights on our quarter (maybe some folks will actually then go and “google it”, and read what it means).
This could lead to some younger people actually caring about our country again, since they do not put enough emphasis on this in our classrooms anymore. Or a picture of our Constitution, w/ some of the then (era), important people looking over it, and getting ready to sign it (wouldn’t that be a grand and proud thing to do). But that would not be a coin big enough for this suggestion.
Fact: Most people could care less about this, they are either to busy,or they simply don’t care, and many, many can not tell you who they are or were, and how Congress justified getting their portraits on this outdated coinage. So the FACT is, we need some fresh ideas friends and foes, to help this dying hobby regain a foothold. I hope this wasn’t to far off topic, as I can do this at times.
Dave in CT.- Rob Up’yke
Lady Liberty would be a refreshing and positive change for American coinage. She was a Roman Godess, also known as Marianne, Britania, Columbia and Freedom. She frequently wears a Liberty Cap or carries it on a staff. The Liberty Cap was given to Roman slaves upon manumission to symbolise freedom and liberty.
Thanks, Houston. I think this could really stimulate interest in coin collecting and bring in new collectors. It would once again be worth collecting coins from change for the first time in decades.
Louis – Another wonderfully informative article. Thanks for making it available.
I noted with interest the comment from Mr. Marks of:
“This would also include production of such coins for numismatic purposes in .999 fine silver.”
Is this intended to convey that these coins would be inserted into the respective Proof and Silver Proof Annual Sets or, rather, that we also might see separate, special sets of UNC-P, UNC-D and PR-S strikes that are additional to the annual issues? The thought of limited issue PR and/or UNC W strikes would be a huge draw. And, if we wanted to go way outside the box, how about portraying the detail of these circulating issues on larger diameter, 0.999 Silver strikes – similar to the current ATB program.
I see endless possibilities for this series and, if this program does comes to pass, a bright future for a hobby that is in desparate need of a generational jump start.
Thanks, VAB. At this point I don’t think they have gotten to the point of deciding whether the collector versions would be sold individually as well as in annual sets, but that is certainly a great idea.
The main thing now is to get a bill, and momentum is building for that. Once a bill is hopefully proposed, I encourage everyone to contact their member of congress and tell them they support it.
What better symbol for a commemorative coin is there than the lady Liberty? I can understand that they want to honor our presidents but I don’t see why they can’t mix it up a little bit. Patriotism can be expressed with many different symbols. This is, after all, America!
Well put, John. And your comments and all the others show just how much potential this series has.
Excellent article. I also think this is an excellent idea. Hopefully the liberty depictions will have a classical appearance rather than the more cartoon appearance of the reverse of many first spouse coins. I had always thought that reviving all of the liberties of our historical coins would be great for numismatics and history lessons. It could start with the liberties of the 18th century perhaps with the Libertas Americana medal design. Then of course the early eagle designs could adorn the reverses. Certainly make an affordable and precious metal version in a diameter that can be appreciated.
Committee is the key word; coin designs as of late have been the work of contests and committees–over a century we’ve gone from Augustus Saint Gaudens to American Idol. We need to cut through the aggregate approach, the attempt to appeal to everyone, and the efforts to keep doing the same thing while doing new things at the same time, and do a purging re-invention of coin design like we did a hundred years ago. And, once we have real artwork back on coins, as soon as a committee recommends appeals to a broader audience based on focus groups, we have the Chairperson of the Department of Numismatic Aesthetics bludgeon said committee with a Big Stick.