New Coin From Choice Mint - Arthur

Agreed, pretty snazzy. Now let's hope everyone and their brother doesn't copy them, and all of a sudden there are 500 variations. Great job db23.
 
Don't like the theme but it's a nice coin. I'm surprised the face came out well. That is usually a weak spot for any coin.
 
barsenault said:
Agreed, pretty snazzy. Now let's hope everyone and their brother doesn't copy them, and all of a sudden there are 500 variations. Great job db23.
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Hahaha. Yeah let's hope for that! Otherwise King Arthur will put them to his mighty sword!;)

Pity that is not also 3oz, but it looks ok. I agree about the face. I think the one on Valkyrie could be better.
 
Nice post, as always.

It's no wonder that amount of details is great, considering it's done by CIT's Smartmint technique. Even though I don't like all coins released with Smartmint, nobody can deny that level of details is great.

Even though I know that amount of details on Legends of Asgard or the design cannot be like the one on boxes and even though I still like them, I think with LoA design was sacrificed due to the high relief. Background on Valkyrie is nice, but Valkyrie itself and especially her face could be done better.

When is this coming out?
 
Btw, mtforpar: I think it would be nice if you could edit title of the topic so we can know in the future to which coin is related. Thanks.:)
 
And.... another video (which is basically the same as the one posted before):
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUIXkn45fCU[/youtube]
 
Stark said:
Nice post, as always.

It's no wonder that amount of details is great, considering it's done by CIT's Smartmint technique. Even though I don't like all coins released with Smartmint, nobody can deny that level of details is great.

Even though I know that amount of details on Legends of Asgard or the design cannot be like the one on boxes and even though I still like them, I think with LoA design was sacrificed due to the high relief. Background on Valkyrie is nice, but Valkyrie itself and especially her face could be done better.

When is this coming out?
Click to expand...


It's more than just the Smartmint technique. The artist drawing style comes in to play a lot. For example look at the Norse Gods series of coins by anonymous mint. Specifically the Odin coin. If you look at the artists original drawing it looks amazing. So much detail. However it doesnt transfer well to the coin because the coin cant reproduce the illusion that the painting can. Look at the wolves faces on the painting. You can tell there's depth and dimension there because the artist uses shading to show that. But that doesn't transfer well to the coin because you're taking a 2D image and giving it 3D qualities now.

IMO the King Arthur looks good because the artist used layers (overlapping armor) the create depth rather than just relying on shading. This was a good job on both parties.
 
Thanks sfstacker for the good feedback. Capturing faces is always a challenge and multiple dies causing delays were tried. Yes, the artist is extremely talented and did an amazing job bringing the ideas to life. I was honestly hoping by now someone would pick up on the detail with what was done on the obverse. As long as I can recall people have voiced complaints , and rightly so, that a whole side of these artistic modern numismatic coins are devoted to the Queens effigy. So I thought let's be creative and insert a Round Table. Of course we played with various surfaces and even coloring the Round Table but I didn't want to take away from the Knights and their saluting swords honoring the Queen. I figured between smartminting and the 50mm diameter I could capture the detail required and the artist and striking really brought it to life. It was a lengthy but fun project. Guinevere is up next and looks as amazing. I will attempt to be more active here if I can answer questions or hear the voice of constructive criticism.
 
Icarus said:
Thanks sfstacker for the good feedback. Capturing faces is always a challenge and multiple dies causing delays were tried. Yes, the artist is extremely talented and did an amazing job bringing the ideas to life. I was honestly hoping by now someone would pick up on the detail with what was done on the obverse. As long as I can recall people have voiced complaints , and rightly so, that a whole side of these artistic modern numismatic coins are devoted to the Queens effigy. So I thought let's be creative and insert a Round Table. Of course we played with various surfaces and even coloring the Round Table but I didn't want to take away from the Knights and their saluting swords honoring the Queen. I figured between smartminting and the 50mm diameter I could capture the detail required and the artist and striking really brought it to life. It was a lengthy but fun project. Guinevere is up next and looks as amazing. I will attempt to be more active here if I can answer questions or hear the voice of constructive criticism.
Click to expand...

I honestly didn't notice the round table until you mentioned it. Whenever I'm browsing coins and know the reverse will have the Queen on it just don't bother loading up that picture. It's not that I don't like her I just figured if I seen one I've seen them all. I also had the same mentality when collecting state quarters. Each state had a different design but the obverse was the Washington head. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that when people are used to the obverse being the same they don't readily notice changes because they're not looking for them in the first place.
 
sfstacker said:
Icarus said:
Thanks sfstacker for the good feedback. Capturing faces is always a challenge and multiple dies causing delays were tried. Yes, the artist is extremely talented and did an amazing job bringing the ideas to life. I was honestly hoping by now someone would pick up on the detail with what was done on the obverse. As long as I can recall people have voiced complaints , and rightly so, that a whole side of these artistic modern numismatic coins are devoted to the Queens effigy. So I thought let's be creative and insert a Round Table. Of course we played with various surfaces and even coloring the Round Table but I didn't want to take away from the Knights and their saluting swords honoring the Queen. I figured between smartminting and the 50mm diameter I could capture the detail required and the artist and striking really brought it to life. It was a lengthy but fun project. Guinevere is up next and looks as amazing. I will attempt to be more active here if I can answer questions or hear the voice of constructive criticism.
Click to expand...

I honestly didn't notice the round table until you mentioned it. Whenever I'm browsing coins and know the reverse will have the Queen on it just don't bother loading up that picture. It's not that I don't like her I just figured if I seen one I've seen them all. I also had the same mentality when collecting state quarters. Each state had a different design but the obverse was the Washington head. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that when people are used to the obverse being the same they don't readily notice changes because they're not looking for them in the first place.
Click to expand...

Well you seem to have a good grasp of how 2D translates to 3D and the importance of layers. Someone in another forum asked what happened to Max Relief. This series is not Max, that's reserved for Asgard atm. I was more interested in using the various finishes on the coin that CIT is so well known for. 3 different finishes; proof, polished and matte I think make examining the coin up close very exciting, at least to me.
 
Icarus said:
sfstacker said:
Icarus said:
Thanks sfstacker for the good feedback. Capturing faces is always a challenge and multiple dies causing delays were tried. Yes, the artist is extremely talented and did an amazing job bringing the ideas to life. I was honestly hoping by now someone would pick up on the detail with what was done on the obverse. As long as I can recall people have voiced complaints , and rightly so, that a whole side of these artistic modern numismatic coins are devoted to the Queens effigy. So I thought let's be creative and insert a Round Table. Of course we played with various surfaces and even coloring the Round Table but I didn't want to take away from the Knights and their saluting swords honoring the Queen. I figured between smartminting and the 50mm diameter I could capture the detail required and the artist and striking really brought it to life. It was a lengthy but fun project. Guinevere is up next and looks as amazing. I will attempt to be more active here if I can answer questions or hear the voice of constructive criticism.
Click to expand...

I honestly didn't notice the round table until you mentioned it. Whenever I'm browsing coins and know the reverse will have the Queen on it just don't bother loading up that picture. It's not that I don't like her I just figured if I seen one I've seen them all. I also had the same mentality when collecting state quarters. Each state had a different design but the obverse was the Washington head. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that when people are used to the obverse being the same they don't readily notice changes because they're not looking for them in the first place.
Click to expand...

Well you seem to have a good grasp of how 2D translates to 3D and the importance of layers. Someone in another forum asked what happened to Max Relief. This series is not Max, that's reserved for Asgard atm. I was more interested in using the various finishes on the coin that CIT is so well known for. 3 different finishes; proof, polished and matte I think make examining the coin up close very exciting, at least to me.
Click to expand...

Yeah I used to produce stickers (HotChickStickers) and through lots of trial and error I found out that some artist styles were better than others when trying to print them in a layered (silkscreen) process. That depth through shading doesn't reproduce in the real world as well as depth through perspective lines. And that shading allows your brain to see depth through contrast but perspective lines allow you to see depth through relativity.
 
sfstacker said:
Stark said:
Nice post, as always.

It's no wonder that amount of details is great, considering it's done by CIT's Smartmint technique. Even though I don't like all coins released with Smartmint, nobody can deny that level of details is great.

Even though I know that amount of details on Legends of Asgard or the design cannot be like the one on boxes and even though I still like them, I think with LoA design was sacrificed due to the high relief. Background on Valkyrie is nice, but Valkyrie itself and especially her face could be done better.

When is this coming out?
Click to expand...


It's more than just the Smartmint technique. The artist drawing style comes in to play a lot. For example look at the Norse Gods series of coins by anonymous mint. Specifically the Odin coin. If you look at the artists original drawing it looks amazing. So much detail. However it doesnt transfer well to the coin because the coin cant reproduce the illusion that the painting can. Look at the wolves faces on the painting. You can tell there's depth and dimension there because the artist uses shading to show that. But that doesn't transfer well to the coin because you're taking a 2D image and giving it 3D qualities now.

IMO the King Arthur looks good because the artist used layers (overlapping armor) the create depth rather than just relying on shading. This was a good job on both parties.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's true. I heard a saying once, fool with a great tool is still just a fool. If you want to have very high relief you may sacrifice other things. There are many coins and medals out there, but there is also a big difference between more talented artists and less. "Common" themes like Lunar coins have so many different designs, but not many are really "innovative" and/or great (at the same time).
There are quite many copycats of Tiffany Art coins out there. And even though some are really cool and have a big amount of details I think that CIT is still leading the pack.
It can be also done more with less. Some older coins and medals are much less detailed, but people at that time used really good what they could and stuff they made still impress or even outperform their successors.

I like that you try to be innovative also with reverse. Don't like the Queen too much (not that I have anything against her, she just appears on too many coins), but it gets so boring to always have the "same" design on reverse. It's also laziness.
 
sfstacker said:
Stark said:
Nice post, as always.

It's no wonder that amount of details is great, considering it's done by CIT's Smartmint technique. Even though I don't like all coins released with Smartmint, nobody can deny that level of details is great.

Even though I know that amount of details on Legends of Asgard or the design cannot be like the one on boxes and even though I still like them, I think with LoA design was sacrificed due to the high relief. Background on Valkyrie is nice, but Valkyrie itself and especially her face could be done better.

When is this coming out?
Click to expand...


It's more than just the Smartmint technique. The artist drawing style comes in to play a lot. For example look at the Norse Gods series of coins by anonymous mint. Specifically the Odin coin. If you look at the artists original drawing it looks amazing. So much detail. However it doesnt transfer well to the coin because the coin cant reproduce the illusion that the painting can. Look at the wolves faces on the painting. You can tell there's depth and dimension there because the artist uses shading to show that. But that doesn't transfer well to the coin because you're taking a 2D image and giving it 3D qualities now.

IMO the King Arthur looks good because the artist used layers (overlapping armor) the create depth rather than just relying on shading. This was a good job on both parties.
Click to expand...

The drawing can be excellent but engraving is key. This can be good bring out becuase it is not so call max relief with flat look to achieve the so call highest relief.

King is much much better for my personal taste.

I Guess part of the reason of the price per gram is higher due to more set of dies to mint this king than Odin.
 
Excellent points about the difference in quality of the design (which includes the skill of the sculptor of course), Stark.

Many here in the forum know that I am a fan of (ultra) high relief medals and coins. But it's not simply because a coin is high relief that I think it is a quality product. There are high relief coins and medals that are poor quality and I wouldn't buy such a coin/medal. High relief isn't why I'd really like to own a Chinese medal like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/China-2012-...927273?hash=item2a6a5a4529:g:xKkAAOSwzJ5XYk45 . The coins that are part of this series are also very well designed in my view: http://www.ebay.com/itm/2015-Niue-R...778990?hash=item2cb6767aae:g:KNEAAOSw44BYFS7Z. Finally, here's another example (that I've shared before) of a well designed high relief round:

8838_2015_-_elemetal_mint_liberty_island_high_relief_2_oz_silver_round_-_liberty_side_best_17_aa.jpg



The point is, the design (which includes, of course, the quality of the sculpt and how it translates to the blank) of the Snake Dance medal and the Swiss Wildlife series coins is terrific and coupled with the high relief, that's what's appealing to me. High relief without a good design is not something that I seek to purchase.

I own coins and medals that are not high relief but have good design.


In my view, Choice Mint's King Arthur 2 oz coin does a nice job of bringing a well designed coin together with high relief. I look forward to seeing what is the asking price on these coins because I have an interest in adding 1 to my collection.




.
 
I appreciate that they waited for an actual example to be available before they unveiled it. That is VERY impressive to me, I don't think I'll be able to resist adding one to the PERMAstack.
 
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