There are a lot of very American coins, and some that you may not even think of. How about the humble Washington quarter sitting in our pockets right now (well not yours, Kolikko)! What's more American than our first president and an American eagle?
@imreh: Maybe you should start a thread, "Most Hungarian Coin" and you'd be years ahead of all of us!
Seriously though, I visited Hungary last June, and I noticed that people sure like using coins there... A woman came to the post office and paid for a money order with a bag of 50 ft coins!!
In my opinion a coin featuring a real person is the absolute opposite of what America should be - mankind's last best hope to live together in peace and liberty.
Every person depicted on a US coin has no more claim to represent "America" than you or I do. Even a great man like Washington never represented the views of more than a tiny minority. Less than 3% of colonists took up arms and outside of Boston, Philadelphia and the Southern trading ports much of the country was loyalist or indifferent. Most of the Indian Nations sided with the Crown as they would side with the Confederacy 60 years later. Fun fact, the last Confederate General to surrender was Lone Waite, who lead Indian irregulars. The same could be said of Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson and I suspect the great men themselves would be the first to agree with me.
Lincoln would be an even worse candidate. He singlehandedly destroyed many of the ideals put in place by the founders to keep power away from a central Federal government and in the hands of the people at state level. He was elected because Southern voters were disenfranchised and was re-elected only by brutal suppression of Northerners. New York city was in open rebellion against the war and "Copperheads" were supporting his rival McLellan is large numbers. Lincoln was a tyrant in every sense of the word both towards his own people and those he made war against in the South. Jefferson Davis is our President, we didn't consent to the Union and have been an occupied country since 1865. Without Lincoln there would be no Obama, no wars for oil, no Imperialist takeovers of neighboring countries and no bloated government in Washington which most Americans now regard as a bigger threat than Iran or North Korea.
"Ike" dollars definitely not. Eisenhower was a bad man. His treatment of surrendering Germans was barbaric as was his systematic starvation of prisoners in the Rhine Meadows concentration camps. Google it, I dare you.
For me the most American of coins would have to be the humble but beautifully designed Indian Head cents. The combination of a native American wearing a "Liberty" headdress seems somehow fitting. An acknowledgement that there were people here before Columbus and that the concept of liberty is shared by all of us or none.
A close second would be the Buffalo nickels for much the same reasons with Mercury Dimes in third place.
Non illegitimis carborundum est. Excellent advice for all coins.
Make Numismatics Great Again!
Yes, I know you have a neo-nazi government in power- I'm not impressed, especially as a Jew!
Funny how I guess the "most Hungarian" thing in your mind - I just know that those lions are on all the tourist ads for Budapest so I photographed one. And the suicice story, that's intersting and definitely Hungarian (I'm sure you know the story about Szép Ilonka)!
Цитата: "pnightingale"In my opinion a coin featuring a real person is the absolute opposite of what America should be - mankind's last best hope to live together in peace and liberty.
Every person depicted on a US coin has no more claim to represent "America" than you or I do. Even a great man like Washington never represented the views of more than a tiny minority. Less than 3% of colonists took up arms and outside of Boston, Philadelphia and the Southern trading ports much of the country was loyalist or indifferent. Most of the Indian Nations sided with the Crown as they would side with the Confederacy 60 years later. Fun fact, the last Confederate General to surrender was Lone Waite, who lead Indian irregulars. The same could be said of Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson and I suspect the great men themselves would be the first to agree with me.
Lincoln would be an even worse candidate. He singlehandedly destroyed many of the ideals put in place by the founders to keep power away from a central Federal government and in the hands of the people at state level. He was elected because Southern voters were disenfranchised and was re-elected only by brutal suppression of Northerners. New York city was in open rebellion against the war and "Copperheads" were supporting his rival McLellan is large numbers. Lincoln was a tyrant in every sense of the word both towards his own people and those he made war against in the South. Jefferson Davis is our President, we didn't consent to the Union and have been an occupied country since 1865. Without Lincoln there would be no Obama, no wars for oil, no Imperialist takeovers of neighboring countries and no bloated government in Washington which most Americans now regard as a bigger threat than Iran or North Korea.
"Ike" dollars definitely not. Eisenhower was a bad man. His treatment of surrendering Germans was barbaric as was his systematic starvation of prisoners in the Rhine Meadows concentration camps. Google it, I dare you.
For me the most American of coins would have to be the humble but beautifully designed Indian Head cents. The combination of a native American wearing a "Liberty" headdress seems somehow fitting. An acknowledgement that there were people here before Columbus and that the concept of liberty is shared by all of us or none.
A close second would be the Buffalo nickels for much the same reasons with Mercury Dimes in third place.
If you take into account the bad things that leaders around the world have done, then none of them are worthy of being depicted on a coin. You don't lead an entire country without ruffling a few feathers here and there. The thing with elected officials is that often times close to half the voting population aren't happy with who won.
Цитата: "pnightingale" Without Lincoln there would be no Obama
If I understand you correctly, that, in my opinion is not a fair thing to say. Are you saying that if lincoln hadn't ended slavery, no one would have?
@imerh: I'm using an iPhone so I have all the accents I need. Seriously, it's funny how I hijacked my own topic!
To make up for it, here is another very American coin:
As Phil said, what can be more American than a Native American? And an eagle to boot! Although I do disagree with Phil because without the revolution there would be no America!
Цитата: "kolikko99"Don't forget hot dogs, burgers, fries, the statue of liberty, peanut butter and blue jeans.
I do love all of those things, but unfortunately, I think most of them aren't American inventions. It is kind of sad that our go to symbol for liberty came from France!
Цитата: "kolikko99"Don't forget hot dogs, burgers, fries, the statue of liberty, peanut butter and blue jeans.
I do love all of those things, but unfortunately, I think most of them aren't American inventions. It is kind of sad that our go to symbol for liberty came from France!
I got one awhile back in a random grab bag of coins my wife got me. I kept it because I collect tokens too (even though I've actually never been to a Chuck E. Cheese).
To be the most "anything", it has to express the nation's ideals via something that symbolizes them and is easily recognizable by most people - monuments (the statue of liberty), mascots (the bald eagle), abstract figures representing societal roles (usually, some kind of care-taker: soldier, nurse/mother), or historical figures (Lincoln, Washington, etc).
No offense, but personal sentiments of those in the minority (for example, the so-called "occupied South") matter very little in how these symbols are chosen, because their voices are not strong enough to be noticed by the majority.
To the average American, the Native Americans (excuse the tautology) do not symbolize anything that could serve as an example of an achievement to take pride in, or a goal to strive towards achieving. If anything, they are a sour reminder of what happens to those who oppose the system. For the same reason, no Confederate general will ever appear on a US note/coin.
The only true ideal in the American society is freedom. Everything else is just an application of freedom in a more specific area and means of getting it: equality (freedom to be treated as fairly as any other), independence (freedom of self-determination), etc.
Цитата: "Houseofham""will ever appear" as in "from this day forward". Unless your crystal ball tells us otherwise, of course.
My magic eight ball has much juju and says "Political fads run in cycles, it's hip to be a tree hugging liberal right now but soon we will abandon Pajama Boy and return to the America of rugged individualism and John Wayne"
Non illegitimis carborundum est. Excellent advice for all coins.
Make Numismatics Great Again!
Цитата: "imreh""President Kardashian" (Limbaugh's nickname for Barack Obama, in reference toPresident Obama's perceived celebrity status, like unto the Kardashians);76 KB (9,269 words) - 00:09, 12 August 2015
is this what you are reffering to?
God! (i.e. that is my village, you know)
I need to refuse this in the name of all Armenians....and GOD,
Phil, you're getting addicted....
Good Lord man, are you telling me you've never heard of our current intellectual titans and molders of public opinion, Kanye West and Bruce Jenner?
The Kardashians are a small tribe of small nasty people made entirely from plastic who get paid enormous amounts of money to be famous and have sex, sometimes with each other. Somewhat like the Kennedy's but without the brains or class. The Center for Disease Control in Atlanta recently estimated that 99.7% of infectious diseases in North America originated with a Kardashian.
If you encounter one in the wild try to keep it at distance by spraying ammonia on it. In the event of physical contact go at once to the hospital for penicillin.
I'm a one of only seven people in the USA who has not had intimate relations with one.
Non illegitimis carborundum est. Excellent advice for all coins.
Make Numismatics Great Again!
Everybody knows it's translation but it seems not everyone understands it's meaning. A nation to be forged from each of it's many components where none is held above another. A country where your position is determined by your abilities rather than who your father was. From many people great and small the nation is built.
Quite how you square this concept with the idea of any one person, especially a politician, representing everybody when by their very definition they only represent their own narrow voter base is something I can't quite grasp. If a politician was able to represent everyone, or even a majority, then we wouldn't need elections.
Perhaps such ambitions died on the discovery of identity politics and we should simply choose a self entitled multi millionaire elitist like Clinton to represent us regular folks?
Non illegitimis carborundum est. Excellent advice for all coins.
Make Numismatics Great Again!
