For the first time in nearly thirty years, the United States Mint is considering a change in the design of the American Silver Eagle bullion coin. Hundreds of rough sketches have been submitted, and the choices have been narrowed down to 44 serious contenders. Some of the designs are excellent, and others are just ridiculous. I am curious to know what the stacking community thinks of the new proposals - the designs you like, as well as those you hate. Remember that these are only rough concepts, and that the actual finished product will be carefully designed and sculpted by master craftsmen, who would only use the sketches as a starting point for the ultimate draft. With this in mind, please take a look at the bottom of the linked page, and give us your thoughts. http://www.coinweek.com/featured-ne...reverse-design-american-silver-eagle-program/
22 fits best with the 'liberty'. A fully drawn bird alike its just released, occupying a the bigger part of the coin. All the others have 'issues'. Being emphasis on peace, war, too aggressive, dull, too much things on the coin, too artificial, weird, silly. Some of those eagles look like they're flashing in public on a tennis court lol. 22 is simple, straightforward, clear, no gimmicks, and it looks like an action shot, being the eagle entering the air, going to do whatever. My HuMbLe OpInIon !
Oh, and a 'hate' one too, well make that 25. That 'eagle' looks like an old vulture, looking sideways down on meat with lotsa worms. They should have put a text balloon above it: "YUCK".
I think no. 24 is pretty good as far as a USA theme goes. It's not too over the top but easily recognizable as belonging to the States.
I think that they will do their best to rout out the word 'liberty'. Just look at how the voted 'best' are all without. They oh so like the words justice / integrity / service. Yet, what remains of those, without liberty? Justice based on forcing? Integrity based on do whatever without being punished? Service based on obeying peons? If there is one reason for them to change the ASE design, it's just to get rid of that 'liberty' on it. That's what I think. Just like they ceased to talk about economy, to use 'socialeconomy' instead, they'll cease to talk about liberty, and shall try to get something else sold in its place.
I personally like #25 & #40, as representative of American "attitude" - LOL Somehow, #6 & #28 remind me of Nazi propaganda. #1, #3, and #5 look to "high-tech" with their radio antenna - perhaps refering the US Government's plan to spy on everyone in the world, when construction of their secret "Utah Data Center" is completed.
I like 23, 24, & 41. I sort of like 40, but it contains a lot of detail. With adjustments, I think 8 would work. Put arrows in the sitting eagles talons and put an olive branch in the flying eagles talons. Or vice versa.
Personally, I think they should leave the design as it is. I really hope they don't go down the road of issuing a new design every year, just to fleece the sheep for more money above the spot bullion price. That would smack of cheap desperation, and would make the Eagle less competitive in the bullion marketplace. Simply pandering to collectors who place higher premiums on annual changes, would be fine for the "collectables" market - but it diminishes the perception of classic permanence and stability. The only good I can see coming from a change, is that if they do indeed replace the Heraldic Mercanti Eagle with a cartoon (as so many other mints have done with their coins), is that the older classic design coins may gain a slight numismatic bump-up in value. Good for me - as I have lots of them. If so, we may end up having two different tiers of Eagles, with different values to track. I am not asking for anyone to agree with my opinion - but you did ask...
Best bullion coin in the world?! Thomas needs to get out more, there is nothing wrong with it but I can think of nicer designs, maybe he means best-selling bullion coin in the world, they sure do make a lot of them. Sure it is a 'sucessful design', but when you narrow the options on sale then it is going to be sucessful because there is nothing else on offer. I think I bought my last tube of them in 2007. Anyway, I quite like 23, I Assume that is the stripes of the American flag in the background, I suppose it gives some detail to the field but I would skip them. I quite liked 15 as well, not a big fan of the Motto "In God We Trust", they seem to have a lot of Nuclear Weapons for people who are putting their trust in God but it doesn't hurt to have back-up I guess. I don't think there is anything wrong with the design and changing the design for another picture of a bird wouldn't convince me to pay any extra or buy any more if they weren't competitively priced. The Maple is another coin that I am not overly keen on but their new design with the radiating lines looks pretty good. If it wasn't for the milk spots I would probably get a couple of those.
The only thing i would change on the current ASE is the face value. The current eagle depicted on the coin is iconic and one of the cleanest design imo.
Personally I don't think there is a problem with that. They designed some pretty amazing eagle logos. +1 for leave the current design alone though.
I like 24,25,and 40 for the detail and they don't seem too tacky or cartoony. The only cartoony one I like is number 6 and thats cause it has a psychedelic feel too it.
Of those designs, #40 looks the best to me. Although I don't know why they'd bother changing it, a bullion coin is a bullion coin... I don't buy ASE's for the picture of the Eagle.
I am changing my vote to any design with $5 on it. I sold my ASEs, but I support a significant increase in the face value of ASEs. Raise the face values of the ASE to $5 and the AGE to $1000. My preference would be ASEs at $25 and AGEs at $2000, but that isn't going to happen.
