what's with the dead presidents?

Good day and welcome to the August 7th edition of Terrific Tuesday! I was hoping to grab your attention with the title. Now for the tough part – keeping you here to the end. Ha! Anyway, the dead presidents that I’m referring to are the portraits or engravings on our coins. So let’s refill our cups and pull up a chair. Lynyrd Skynyrd greeted me this morning with their 1974 hit, Sweet Home Alabama.

Gold is currently up +$4.50 this morning at $1,211.70.

Silver is currently up +$0.10 at $15.31.

Platinum is currently up +$12 at $831.

Palladium is currently up +$10 at $910.

Again, nothing to see here as prices are still below the 30-day average.

So, one hundred thirty-three years before Theodore Roosevelt approved Victor David Brenner’s engraving of Lincoln to be used on the one-cent, our Founding Fathers with emphasis on our first President, George Washington stated that they didn’t want a likeness of any of them to ever be on United States coinage. Since time began, and governments issued coins, it was common for the profiles of kings, queens, and emperors to appear on them.

Our country was young. A new type of government was to be tried. Prior to these United States, most governments were one of three types. That is democracy, dictatorship, or monarchy. This new constitutional republic had built in safe-guards that the founders hoped would give stability, guard liberty, and define the God given rights that government could not trample. Never before, was freedom defined quite like they envisioned. Because of this, the people of the newly formed government wanted to steer clear of anything that resembled other countries. And that is how “Lady Liberty” was born. As each new artist was hired by the U.S. Mint to create new coins, they were employed to design – to embody liberty. It’s fascinating to see the artistic progression of Liberty on the obverse or face of our coinage from the first half-disme (half-dime) of 1792 through the 1916 designs we call the “Mercury” Dime, “Standing Liberty” Quarter, and “Walking Liberty” Half Dollar. Of course, technology improved allowing for better engraving, casting, and coin pressing, but in 1916, Lady Liberty sure was looking the best she ever had!

In 1909 the decision to change the design of the one-cent was reported in the U.S. Mint’s Annual Report without any explanation as to the reasons why the Mint was abandoning 133 years of tradition by placing a profile of a President on a coin. Although it becomes speculation, what is known is that then President Theodore Roosevelt desired to honor Lincoln on the centennial of his birth. Initially, it seems like the plan was to create a commemorative coin for that year only as is known to have occurred in 1932 for the Washington Quarter. But, the coins were hugely successful at their introduction and the decision to continue the designs into subsequent years seemed to be an easy one. Next came the redesign of the Indian Five-Cent – better known as the Buffalo Nickel. The Buffalo Nickel design had been in use for 25 years, thus allowing the Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Morgenthau, to issue a new design without the approval of Congress. Mr. Morgenthau immediately set in motion the competition for new designs with Jefferson on the obverse and Monticello on the reverse. In 1946 the Winged Liberty “Mercury” Dime was replaced with a profile of recently deceased Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1948, the Walking Liberty Half Dollar was replaced with one of Benjamin Franklin; then in 1964, with John F. Kennedy.

Will we ever see a day where "Lady Liberty" reclaims her rightful position on our coinage? With the advent of digital money, most coins are obsolete today, so my guess is no. Sadly, I'm afraid to say that I think "Lady Liberty" is dead.

Well, I’ll let that be it for today. Go out there and make a difference! See ya later!

*Disclaimer: Precious Metal Musings™ is written for entertainment and news purposes only and should not be used in making purchases and/or sales of precious metals.